banglanews24.com :
Former state minister for foreign affairs ministry Abul Hasan Chowdhury got exemption from the much-talked-about Padma Bridge corruption case.
A Canadian court discharged him from the allegation. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice suspended the case as Chowdhury was a foreign citizen and the court had no authority despite there was evidence of the allegation against the state minister.
But the court said if Canada, in future, could establish jurisdiction over the accused, then prosecution could appeal to the
court to change the decision. The former state minister himself confirmed the matter to banglanews. Besides, another source from Canada also confirmed the matter.
Following the matter Abul Hasan Chowdhury told banglanews: “Yes, relief was given and no more comment in this connection.”
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Commissioner Sahabuddin Chuppu told banglanews: “We did not get any information yet in this regard.”
Sources said Abul Hasan Chowdhury through Canadian lawyer Brain Greenspan challenged the court. Later, the justice J Nordheimer in a verdict stayed the order of Abdul Hasan Chowdhury after the hearing.
The court in the verdict said Chowdhury was not Canadian, he was a Bangladeshi and there was no record that he visited Canada.
On December 17, ACC filed a corruption case against seven officials, including former bridge secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on charge of corruption in Padma bridge project.
The other accused in the case are Roads and Highways division executive engineer Riaz Ahmed Jaber, Engineer and Planning Consulted Limited DMD Muhammad Mostafa, SNC-Lavalin former director Muhammad Ismail.
Investigators found out a notebook of SNC-Lavalin official Ramesh where he wrote down the percentage of bribe to offer to various persons concerned with the much-talked Padma Bridge, a massive infrastructure project designed to link Bangladesh’s southwest with the capital city Dhaka.
Some of the information was also found from the laptop of Ismail, another official of Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin.
Based on the findings, Canadian police arrested these two officials and filed a case under ‘Corruption of Foreign Policy Act.’
