The High Court on Tuesday turned down three separate petitions filed by six former officials of the Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) in Dinajpur challenging the trial court order that on November 25 last year framed charges against them in a corruption case.
The HC bench of Justice SM Kuddus Zaman and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan passed the order considering that the pleas were not presented properly.
Now there is no bar for the lower court to run the trial proceedings in the corruption case filed over misappropriation of Tk2.43 billion through hiding over 1.43 tonnes of coal of the BCMCL, said Khurshid Alam Khan, a counsel for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The accused in the petitions sought exemption from the charges in the case.
The petitioners include former BCMCL managing directors Md Abdul Aziz Khan, SM Nurul Aurangazeb, Khurshidul Hasan, Md Kamaruzzaman, and Md Aminuzzaman, and its former official Abu Taher Md Nur-uz-Zaman Chowdhury.
Lawyers Rokanuddin Mahmud and Mustafizur Rahman Khan defended the petitioners.
Md Anisur Rahman, manager (admin) of the coal mine company, filed the case accusing 19 people with Parbatipur Police Station in Dinajpur on July 24, 2018 in connection with the concealment of the coal.
The accused officials were behind the disappearance of the 1.43 lakh tonnes of coal.
The estimated market value of the coal would be over Tk2.43 billion which the officials allegedly concealed between January 2006 and July 19, 2018.
