HC orders BCIC to publish fertiliser embezzlers’ names

Arrest those who are corrupt and put them in jail, said the High Court, expressing its dissatisfaction after the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) failed to submit a complete report mentioning the names of those involved in a Tk582 crore fertiliser embezzlement case.

"Did the money vanish into thin air? The report has no value if the names of those involved in corruption are not mentioned here," the High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat said on Thursday.

The court said those involved in the scam must be named explicitly and warned that they will be sent to jail as part of the judiciary's stringent stance against money laundering.

The strong reaction from the court came as the BCIC sought more time to submit a full report to the court.

Advocate Mollah Kismat Habib appeared on behalf of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation in the court and Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan represented the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during the hearing.

The court fixed 9 July for submitting the full investigation report regarding the case.

On 5 June, the High Court ordered the BCIC to explain the embezzlement of Tk582 crore and issued a ruling asking why the authorities' failure to take action against those involved in the incident would not be illegal.

It also asked the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to probe the alleged embezzlement of fertiliser worth Tk582 crore by Poton Traders, the contractor in charge of transportation of the import, and submit the probe report to the court within 60 days.

Taking into cognisance a news published in a national daily, the bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat Lizu passed the suo moto order.

The report stated that Poton Traders has allegedly misappropriated 72,000 tonnes of government-imported chemical fertilisers without delivering them to the warehouse after release from the port.

The fertiliser embezzlement came to light in two investigations by the BCIC, a government body under the industries ministry that imports fertiliser.

The fertilisers were released from the port between November 2021 and May 2022. When they were not delivered to the warehouses even in seven months after that, the BCIC sent a letter to the industries ministry on 20 December last year, seeking instructions for taking legal action.

It later filed a case against Poton Traders for misappropriating 72,000 tonnes of imported urea fertiliser, valued at Tk582 crore.

Poton Traders – run by Kamrul Ashraf Khan (Poton) who is a former member of parliament from the Narsingdi-2 constituency and the president of the Bangladesh Fertiliser Association – was the biggest contractor of the BCIC that transported fertilisers for 15 years.

A BCIC investigation found that Kamrul Ashraf used his position and political power to secure transportation contracts. He knew all the government's logistic loopholes and used them cunningly. The embezzlement occurred during fertiliser transits, said the newspaper report.

The probe report also revealed that Poton Traders exploited the BCIC supply chain loopholes of not having enough buffer warehouses to store fertilisers. That is why a large amount of fertiliser is always in transit with its contractors giving them ample opportunities to steal.