ACC slaps travel ban on four Barapukuria mine officials in coal probe

The Anti-Corruption Commission or ACC has asked the immigration authorities to stop four top officials of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company from leaving Bangladesh while it investigates alleged misappropriation of the mineral resource.

The four facing the travel ban are managing director Habib Uddin Ahmed, general manager Abu Taher Md Nur-uz-Zaman Chowdhury, company secretary Abul Kashem Prodhania and deputy general manager AKM Khaledul Islam.

Abu Taher and Khaledul, who were in-l charge of mining operations and store respectively, have already been suspended.

Habib has been transferred to the Petrobangla chairman’s office and Kashem to Pashchimanchal Gas Company Ltd in Sirajganj.

They are accused of selling coal worth approximately Tk 2 billion through fraud and abuse of power.

ACC said after a visit to the mine during initial investigations that there was no trace of 144,000 tonnes of coal stored on the yard of the mine at Barapukuria in Dinajpur.

The disappearance of the coal forced the authorities to shut a 525MW coal-fired thermal power plant next to the mine to halt operations on Sunday due to a shortage of fuel.

ACC Deputy Director Shamsul Alam, who is heading the investigation, wrote to the Department of Immigration and Passports on Tuesday, the national anti-graft agency's spokesman Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told bdnews24.com.

Assistant Director ASM Sajjad Hossain and Deputy Assistant Director ASM Tajul Islam are assisting Shamsul in the investigation while Director Kazi Shafiqul Alam is supervising it.

Earlier on Tuesday, the ACC investigator asked Petrobangla officials for related papers during a visit to the state oil firm’s headquarters in Dhaka.