The High Court on Thursday asked the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to end its investigation into allegations of irregularities amounting to over Tk472 crore against the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC)'s subsidiary body Standard Asiatic Oil Company (SAOC) within three months.
The bench of Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat Lizu on a suomoto rule asked the authorities concerned after a hearing in this regard.
In the rule, the court also wanted to know what actions were taken against SAOC regarding the misappropriations and irregularities.
Apart from this, the ACC, comptroller and auditor general, BPC chairman and others concerned were made respondents to explain why it will not be illegal to take action against the authorities concerned for their inaction to move against the accused.
On November 4, the Daily Star published a report saying “BPC's associate body embezzles Tk472.7 crore.”
On November 6, the High Court issued a suomoto rule after ACC Counsel Khurshid Alam Khan drew attention to it.
According to the report, the government has been deprived of Tk472.7 crore for 21 counts of irregularities by SAOC, a subsidiary of the BPC, found in an audit.
The disclosure comes after the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) went through the company's books from FY2012-13 to 2019-20 and made field visits.
SAOC, which is a 50-50 joint venture between the BPC and Asiatic Industries, is involved in the blending and marketing of engine oil and lubricating oil for vehicles; the marketing of diesel oil; the marketing and distribution of bitumen, liquefied petroleum gas and furnace oil; and supplying jet fuel to aircraft at Cox's Bazar International Airport, it said.
The anomalies included embezzlement by top officials, high rates, overtime, missing funds, irregularities in payment of litigation fees and violation of the Income Tax Ordinance and VAT Rules, the report added.