ACC quizzes 8 more officials over Barapukurua coal theft

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday interrogated eight more officials of Petrobangla in connection of the mysterious disappearance of a huge stack of coal from Barapukurua Coal Mine, reports UNB.

Those who faced the interrogation are -- former managing director Habib Uddin Ahmed, two former company secretaries Abul Kashem Pradia and Mosharraf Hossain Sarker, general manager (general service) Masudur Rahman Hawlader, manager (production management) Ashok Kumar Haldar, Manager (maintenance and operation) Arifur Rahman, manager (design, construction and maintenance) Jahidul Islam, and deputy manager (safety management) Ekramul Haque.

On August 13, some 32 officials of Petrobangla were asked to be present for interrogation at ACC in phases.

The third phase of the interrogation began at9 amat the ACC office in the city,ACC’s public relations officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told UNB.

ACC Deputy Director Shamsul Alam, who is serving as the investigation officer, is quizzing the eight officials, he said.

He added that the remaining officials are scheduled to face interrogation onAugust 30in the last phase.

The Petrobangla officials who faced the interrogation on August 28 in the second face are-General Manager (Mine Operation) Abu Taher Mohammad Nuruzzaman Choudhury, Deputy Manager A K M Khaledul Islam, Deputy Manager (Maintenance and Operation) Morsheduzzaman, Deputy Manager (Production Management) Habibur Rahman, Deputy Manager (Mine Development) Zahedur Rahman, Deputy Manager (Ventilation Management) Sattyndranath Barman, Deputy General Manager ( Mine Planning Operation) Jobayer Ali and Manager (Security) Syed Imam Hasan.Earlier, ACC interrogated seven Petrobangla officials on August 16 in the first phase. The officials who faced the interrogation that day are - Deputy General Manager Nazmul Haque, Manager (Coal Handling Management) Shoyebur Rahman, Manager (Production Management) Syed Masud, Deputy Manager (Maintenance and Operation) Mahbub Hossain, Assistant Manager (Production Management) Moniruzzaman, Assistant Manager (Coal Handling Management) Md.Mahbud Rashid, and Manager (Store) Md, Didarul Kabir.Barapukuria Coal-fired Thermal Power Plant had to be shut down for the mysterious disappearance of a huge volume of coal from the Barapukuria Coal Mine.The disappearance of coal came to light onJuly 22, when a team from the Power Development Board visited the coal mine and found that there was no adequate reserve of coal in the yard of the mine. As per the official investigation, the stock was found to have a shortage of 148,000 tonnes of coal.A case was filed with Parbatipur Police Station onJuly 24against 19 officials. The case was later transferred to the Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation.