A Dhaka court has denied bail to former vice chancellor of Begum Rokeya University (BRUR) in Rangpur, Professor Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, who was arrested in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
On Thursday, Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Sabbir Faiz delivered the order after a hearing.
On the same day, following the end of his remand, the ACC produced Kalimullah before the court and sought an order to keep him detained in prison. On the other hand, Advocate Mohsin Reza, Mahima Bandhan, and Sadman Sakib, on behalf of ZI Khan Panna and Associates, appealed for Kalimullah’s bail. The prosecution opposed the bail. After hearing both sides, the court denied the bail petition.
On August 7, Detective Branch police arrested Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah from the Mohammadpur area of the capital. On that day, the court ordered him to be sent to prison. On August 27, the court granted a five-day remand in the ACC case.
On June 18, the ACC filed a case against Kalimullah and four others over allegations of irregularities and corruption in the special development project of Begum Rokeya University. The other accused are former vice chancellor and project director AKM Nur-un-Nabi, former executive engineer and member secretary of the Tender Evaluation Committee Md Jahangir Alam, contractor Md A Salam Bacchu, and MM Habibur Rahman.
According to the case statement, the accused colluded in criminal breach of trust and abuse of power by altering the design in violation of the university’s approved Development Project Proposal (DPP).
In addition, they executed agreements worth more than Tk30 crore without approval from the relevant ministry or division.
It was alleged that the accused deposited the money deducted as security deposit from the contractor’s bill in the form of fixed deposits (FDR) in banks, and then pledged those FDRs to allow the contractor to secure bank loans. As a result, nearly Tk4 crore of the university, and thereby the government, was embezzled.
Furthermore, although there was no provision for advance payment in the contract with the contractor, advance bills were paid through bank guarantees citing financial assistance. However, the bank guarantees were released before the bills were settled, which was irregular.
The case statement also mentioned that, disregarding the design provided by the first consultancy firm, the accused appointed a second consultancy firm in violation of government procurement rules.
Finally, despite abnormal price proposals (front loading) in the tenders, proper evaluation was not carried out in accordance with the Public Procurement Rules (PPR) 2008, according to the allegations.
FP/MI
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