A Dhaka court has sentenced Kashem Sharif, a former president of Niko Resources Limited Bangladesh, to five years in prison for bribing former state minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain with a car worth Tk 10 million.
ASM Ruhul Imran, a special judge, also fined Kashem Tk 50,000 on Monday, said Mosharraf Hossain Kazol, a lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Commission. Kashem will have to serve six more months in jail if he does not pay the fines, reports bdnews24.com.
Mosharraf, a former state minister for energy and mineral resources of the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami government, died in October 2020.
Kashem, a dual citizen of Bangladesh and the US, has been absconding. The judge issued an arrest warrant against him.
Shahidur Rahman, then a director of the ACC, prosecuted Mosharraf at Shahbagh Police Station in 2012, accusing him of taking a Tk 10 million Toyota Land Cruiser, Tk 23,805 for its registration and 0.5 million Canadian dollars for travel in bribes from Niko.
The ACC said Mosharraf took the bribe from Kashem in exchange for a gas purchase and sale agreement related to Feni Gas Field.
Mosharraf secured bail after the ACC submitted the charge-sheet against the former state minister and Kashem.
Niko demanded $2.35 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) gas from Bangladesh in the agreement. After the bribery was uncovered, Mosharraf resigned. The price of gas from the field was later fixed at $1.75 per Mcf.
Besides the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Petrobangla investigated the corruption.