UNB, Dhaka

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion has said the accused individuals in the Barapukuria graft case who are not in jail will not be arrested immediately.

Of the 16 accused, former prime minister Khaleda Zia and three former ministers are already in jail on different other cases while the rest are either free or absconding.

The ACC assistant director, Samsul Alam, filed the case with Shahbagh police station on Tuesday against Khaleda, 10 former ministers of her cabinet and five others for causing a loss of about Tk 159 crore to the national exchequer through awarding the Barapukuria Coal Mine deal to the highest bidder.

Former finance minister M Saifur Rahman, ex-BNP secretary general and LGRD minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Jamaat chief and ex-industries minister Matiur Rahman Nizami and its secretary general and ex-social welfare minister Ali Ahsan M Mujahid are among the ministers of the past alliance government sued by the ACC.

The other accused in the case are former health minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, former agriculture minister MK Anwar, former information minister Shamsul Islam, former commerce minister Air Vice-Marshall (retd) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, former telecommunications minister Aminul Haque and former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain.

The rest of the accused are former energy secretary Nazrul Islam, former Petrobangla chairman and incumbent BISIC chairman SR Osmani, former Petrobangla director Moinul Ahsan, former managing director of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Sirajul Islam and Hossaf Group chairman Moazzem Hossain. Apart from Khaleda and AKM Mosharraf, all the nine former ministers were the members of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase that had approved the deal. Khaleda was in charge of the ministry of energy and mineral resources and AKM Mosharraf was state minister with that portfolio.

Khaleda, Khandaker Mosharraf, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury and AKM Mosharraf Hossain are already in jail while Aminul Haque, who was convicted in a few cases, is believed to be residing abroad. ‘The case has just been filed but the investigating officer is yet to be appointed. Until investigation begins how can we go for arresting the accused?’ the ACC director general (admin), Col Hanif Iqbal, also commission spokesperson, told a regular briefing while replying to a query in this regard.

He also told the questioner that since the case had not been filed under Emergency Powers Rules the arrests would be made only when it would be deemed necessary as the investigations begin. Hanif said for making arrests, there were some preconditions like if there was a possibility that anyone might destroy evidence or take initiative to leave the country.

‘There are many more preconditions. If attempts are made to break these preconditions only then the question of issuing arrest warrants comes.’ He went on to say if the IO feels necessary to arrest any accused in the interests of the case that can be done.

Asked if the commission has any plan to bring the case under EPR, the director general said it’s a matter for the commission to decide but no such discussion has yet been taken. Replying to a query, he said to make a decision about using EPR in other cases, he said the commission would wait until the verdict of Appellate Division on the extortion case filed against Hasina.

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