The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has issued a travel ban on four top officials of the state-run Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) for their alleged involvement in the coal disappearance issue.
The officials include -- BCMCL managing director Habib Uddin Ahmed, its general manager (admin) Md Abul Kashem Prodhania, general manager (mining operation) Abu Taher Md Nur-Uz-Zaman Choudhury and deputy general manager (store) AKM Khademul Islam.
However, these four officials were either withdrawn or put on suspension following the detection of the irregularities involving 142,000 tonnes of coal, worth over Tk 2.0 billion.
Meanwhile, an ACC team visited Petrobangla on Tuesday to hold talks about the coal scam with high officials of the state entity including its chairman Abul Mansur Md Faizullah, said ACC deputy director (public relations) Pranab Kumar Bhattacharjee.
The three-member ACC probe committee led by its deputy director Shamsul Alam included assistant director ASM Sajjad Hossain and deputy assistant director ASM Tajul Islam. ACC director Kazi Shafiqul Alam was also present.
The commission sources said the ACC team discussed with Petrobangla high-ups about various aspects of the coal scam.
They also asked high officials of Petrobangla to make available the relevant documents to the ACC within the shortest possible time.
The anti-graft watchdog formed the three-member probe committee on Monday and it was asked to submit its findings within 15 working days.
Another ACC team led by ACC deputy director Mohammad Benzir Ahmed of Dinajpur office found preliminary signs of irregularities following a visit to the storage yard of the coal company.
A few days earlier, the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources (MPEMR) had constituted another team to investigate how the huge amount of coal which was meant for Barapukuria power station got disappeared.
Power generation of the 525 megawatts (MW) Barapukuria coal-fired power plant has remained suspended due to the lack of coal supply since Sunday night.
Because of the suspension of production, the country's northern districts have been witnessing severe disruption in the electricity supply.
However, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid assured all of resuming power generation at the plant within a month.
