Rooppur pillow scam engineer was never a member of Chhatra Dal: Fakhrul

The engineer being investigated for unusual expenditure in purchasing furniture and other household items for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant staff has never been a member of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal or JCD, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has claimed.

Masudul Alam, who was withdrawn after the allegations surfaced last month, was not a student of BUET either, according to the BNP secretary general.

Following media reports on the alleged corruption, the housing and public works ministry formed two separate investigation panels.

The purchase prices of various stuff to furnish the project’s apartments for the officials and employees were unusually higher than the market prices, the media reported.

Each pillow, the reports claimed, was bought for Tk 5,957, and its carrying cost from the shop to the building was at Tk 760.

In response to a query on the reports, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament on June 17 that Alam had been a vice president of the BNP’s student wing JCD at BUET.

Masudul Alam

Asked about the prime minister’s claim, Mirza Fakhrul told reporters after a meeting of the BNP National Standing Committee in Dhaka on Saturday: “These remarks are utter lies. She (Hasina) lied in parliament. Such falsification by a prime minister is unacceptable” 

“In fact, engineer Masudul Alam was not a student of BUET, but Khulna University of Engineering and Technology or KUET,” he said, claiming the BNP gathered all information on Masudul.

Alam lived in room No. 26 of KUET’s AK Fazlul Huq Hall and was a student of civil engineering department with the roll No. 92135, according to the BNP leader.  

“He has never been involved in JCD’s politics. He might have been with a leftist students’ organisation. Now he is linked to Bangabandhu Prokoushol Parishad,” Mirza Fakhrul said.