A Dhaka court has sent 13 people including 11 government officials to jail in four cases filed over allegation of corruption in the housing project for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project (RNPP) in Pabna.
Metropolitan Magistrate Nivana Khair Jessi passed the order after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) produced them before the court on Thursday, seeking order to keep them in jail until completion of probe in the cases.
The accused are -- Former Pabna Public Works Department (PWD) executive engineer Masudul Alam, deputy assistant engineers Md Jahidul Kabir, Md Shafiqul Islam, Suman Kumar Nandi, Mohammad Abu Sayed, Md Rowshan Ali, deputy divisional engineers Mohammad Mostafa Kamal, Ahmed Sajjad Khan, Mohammad Tahajjud Hossain, assistant engineers Md Tarek Khan, Md Aminul Islam, and contractors Asif Hossain and Shahadat Hossain.
Earlier in the day, the ACC Deputy Director Md Nasir Uddin filed four cases with its integrated district office in Pabna on the charges of embezzling Tk312,447,172.47 for the purchase of electrical equipment and furniture for the RNPP housing project.
The government launched an inquiry into the abnormally high prices of articles being used to furnish apartments in multi-storey buildings at the RNPP.
The committees were formed on May 19, three days after a media outlet reported on cost-related anomalies in the housing project called Green City of the RNPP project in Iswardi upazila of Pabna.
The probe reports were submitted after the probe bodies were twice given extensions on their deadline. On June 30, they were given two weeks to submit their reports.
Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Sayedul Haque Suman also filed a writ petition with the High Court on the same day, seeking a judicial inquiry into the allegations of irregularities in purchasing furniture and other items for the RNPP apartments.
On May 22, the PWD withdrew Masudul Alam, who was in charge of the housing project. He was later attached to the PWD headquarters in Dhaka.
According to a news report published in a Bangla daily, a single pillow was bought for Tk5,957, and the cost to move that to the apartment was Tk760. The report stirred much controversy and strong criticisms, especially on social media.
An electric stove reportedly cost Tk7,747 and the movers were paid Tk6,650 to move it upstairs from the bottom floor.
An electric kettle was bought at Tk5,313, and its moving cost was Tk2,945, and an electric iron bought at Tk4,154 was moved upstairs spending Tk2,945.
