RHD officer sues journos for corruption probe

A Roads and Highways Department (RHD) officer has sued a journalist as he was investigating suspected corruption in the department. Patuakhali RHD Sub Assistant Engineer Md Hasan Al-Mamun filed the case with Patuakhali Sadar Police Station (PS) on April 25 against Sanjoy Kumar Das, Patuakhali correspondent of bdnews24.com. Sanjoy was collecting information on the auction of various obsolete equipment and materials including Bailey bridge in the southern district. An investigation by bdnews24.com did not find address of three firms which won the auction. They are Nazma Enterprise, Gazi Trading Corporation and Karnaphuli Engineering. All the firms mentioned 34 Sheikhpara in Khulna city as their office address but Khunla City Corporation confirmed that there was no existence of such firms there. In his case statement Al-Mamun said two journalists including Das and 5-6 unidentified people went to his government quarter on April 24 around 9:30pm and demanded Tk 0.5 million in ransom. They also abused and threatened his brother, Al-Mamun claimed. The junior engineer, however, said he was not at the quarter at that time. He claimed that half an hour later the accused went to Patuakhali toll plaza where they abused threatened duty inspectors Abdur Rahman and Abul Bashar and took away Tk 3,000 from them. When asked, complainant Al-Mamun told bdnews24.com: “They (the accused) were demanding ransom from me on different purposes,” He further claimed. When asked about the dubious firms, Al-Mamun said the executive director is responsible for examining the papers. “It’s the executive director’s responsibility to hand over the materials as per the work order,” he said. He added that there was a separate committee to deal with the matter and its members could answer the question well. Asked why the journalists demanded ransom from him, nor from the executive engineer, Al-Mamun said: “The accused can explain it well.” Contacted, Executive Engineer Zahirul Islam said he heard that the journalists abused Al-Mamun at his house, according to bdnews24.com.