ACC press charges against 16 Biman officials

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) today pressed charges against 16 former and present officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines in a Tk 1,161 crore corruption case.

ACC Deputy Director Md Anwarul Haque, also the investigating officer of the case, submitted the charges to the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court, said an official of the court.

The charge-sheeted accused are Kevin John Steele, former managing director and CEO of Biman, Ishrat Ahmed, former flight captain (operation) of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Md Shafiqul Alam Siddique, former deputy chief engineer, Shahid Uddin Mohmmad Hanif, former principal engineer (services and audit), Debesh Chowdhury, former principal engineer (MCC and LM).

The other accused include Golam Sarwar, former inspector of aircraft and currently airworthiness consultant at the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), Md Sadequl Islam Bhuiyan, former aircraft mechanic and now engineer at Biman, Sharif Ruhul Quddus, principal system engineer (structure) at Biman, Md Shahjahan, former deputy chief engineer of Biman, Md Zahid Hossain, engineer of Biman,

Mohammad Shafiul Azam, assistant director (AOC airworthiness) of CAAB, Dewan Rashed Uddin, assistant director (Aerospace) CAAB, Hiralal Chakrabarty, engineer of Biman, Ashoke Kumar Sardar, principal system engineer of Biman, Md Lutfar Rahman, engineer of Biman, Md Abdul Kadir, former assistant director and now deputy director of CAAB are also among the charge-sheeted accused.

The IO dropped names of 14 others from the chargesheet as their involvement with the corruption was not proved.

The charge sheet will be placed before the court on July 6 for its acceptance.

On February 6 last year, the ACC filed a case against 23 people including the airline's former flight captain (operation) Ishrat Ahmed for causing financial loss to the national flag carrier.

According to the case statement, the accused colluded and misused their power to benefit themselves first and then benefit others and embezzled the money by leasing and then re-delivering two aircraft from Egypt Air, causing Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd a loss of Tk1,161 crore.

According to ACC sources, Biman leased two Boeing 777-200 ER aircraft from Egypt Air in 2014 under a five-year contract. Both aircraft suffered engine failures at the end of the first year. The engines were about 12-15 years old and were completely broken due to their short airworthiness period.

Another engine was leased from Egypt Air to keep the aircraft operational. After a year and a half, that too was destroyed.

In five years, the total loss amounted to Tk1,100 crore. The findings came up in the investigation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.

The parliamentary body enquired into the matter and found irregularities in leasing the two aircrafts that caused the carrier to incur a loss of Tk 1,161 crore. Later it was recommended that the ACC look into it.

Following that, the ACC formed a two-member committee and launched an investigation.