ACC goes after Ramesh’s diary

Anti Corruption Commission investigators are in Canada to try to get the diary of Ramesh Shah, an accused in the case over the suspected bribery conspiracy involving the Padma bridge project.

“The ACC team has gone to Canada to make progress in the investigation. They’re trying to collect the diary of Ramesh Shah,” Secretary M Faizur Rahman Chowdhury said on Wednesday in its monthly briefing at the ACC office.

Shah, former Vice-President of Canadian consultancy firm SNC-Lavalin, reportedly mentioned in his diary the deal on percentage sharing of the bribe to be given to senior officials of Bangladesh government for consultancy works of Padma project.

The ACC Secretary said: “If (getting a hand on the diary is) not possible, its pages or copy will be collected.”

He said the team would record statements of three Canadian accused, including Shah, in the case.

A Canadian court is trying Shah and Mohammad Ismail, SNC-Lavalin’s former Director, for the bribe conspiracy.

Kevin Wallace, former President of Candu Energy, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, is another accused in the case filed by the ACC.

ACC chief lawyer Anisul Haque and plaintiff of the case Mirza Zahidul Alam left Dhaka for Canada on May 19 to quiz the three accused.

They are supposed to come back on May 23.

The ACC on Dec 17 filed the case at Banani Police Station against seven over the bribe conspiracy.

The other accused are former Secretary to the Bridges Division Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Superintendent Engineer of Bangladesh Bridge Authority Kazi Mohammad Ferdous, Executive Engineer of Roads and Highways Department Reaz Ahmed Zaber and Deputy Managing Director of Engineering and Planning Consultant, SNC Lavalin’s local agent, Mohammad Mostafa.

Media had reported that Shah mentioned in his diary that former Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain was to get 4 percent of Tk 380 million in bribe from the supervision work money. Names of Prime Minister’s Economic Affairs Advisor Moshiur Rahman, former State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abul Hassan Chowdhury and Mosharraf of Bridges Division were there in the diary, which was seized by Canadian police.

The ACC Secretary told the Wednesday briefing: “Still we’ve no information that the investigation team has collected any mentionable information. But they’re trying.”

Asked if the Canadian government was not co-operating, he said: “There’re many formal matters. SNC-Lavalin is a Canadian company. They may have some government restrictions on providing internal information to any other country. But the ACC team is trying its best. I hope they will succeed.”

Abdullah Al Zahid, a member of the ACC team probing into Padma project corruption charges, told bdnews24.com that they completed the ‘domestic part of the investigation’ in March this year. A partial report has also been submitted to the commission.

He hoped that a full report would be submitted on the ACC team’s return from Canada.