Two officials of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) want to testify before the Dhaka Special Judge Court against former State Minister for Energy A K M Mosharaff Hossain and President of Niko Resources (Bangladesh) Kashem Sharif on charge of taking kickback from the company, sources in ACC said. Loyed Scope and Grogary Prous Niko, who are also the investigation officers on the graft case in Canada, have sent a letter to the Attorney General Office in this regard through Canadian Department of Justice a few days ago.
In the letter, they have stated that they are interested to testify in the court against the alleged accused.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has already received the letter from the attorney general office. The ACC has no objection to their appearing as witnesses, sources said. ACC filed a case against the state minister and the president in February in 2012 with Shahbagh Thana on charge of giving and taking a luxurious Toyota Land Cruiser Car and $ 5 lakh as bribe.
ACC submitted the charge sheet against them in August the same year.
As the receipt of the facilities illegally was brought to light, the sate minister resigned. Later Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Bangladesh Petrobangla formed two separate committees.
Two committees with the ACC found the evidence of the kickback transaction.
In 2005, Niko Resources Ltd blasted two expulsions in Tengratila gas field, which caused a great loss.
The government demanded Tk 750 crore from the company as compensation. But it did not meet the demand.
Then, Niko came under somewhat pressure. Two investigation committees in Bangladesh think that the company gave the state minister the money and car to protect or to reduce the amount of compensation money.
In January 2014, the Canadian authorities sent a mutual legal assistance request to the ACC through the Attorney General Office, seeking permission to interrogate former Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman, former Foreign Minister Morshed Khan and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Energy Adviser Mahmudur Rahman in connection with Niko graft case. Saifur Rahman died in a road accident several years ago.
