A Chittagong court yesterday issued arrest warrants against eight persons including Yusuf Ali Mridha, the suspended general manager of railway’s east zone, in two more cases regarding irregularities in recruitment.
Chittagong Metropolitan Senior Special Judge SM Mujibur Rahman passed the order after taking charge sheets in two cases into cognisance. The court also fixed on December 4 for hearing in the cases.
Apart from Mridha, the court issued arrest warrants against suspended social welfare officer Golam Kibria, suspended additional chief mechanical engineer Hafizur Rahman, and recruited employees Md Shahin, Azizul Haque, Rabiul Islam, Saifur Rahman and Ashraful Islam.
The cases were filed for irregularities in the recruitment process for the posts of tool keeper and ticket issuer, said Mohammed Fuad, bench assistant of the court.
SM Rashidur Reza, assistant director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), lodged the cases on September 13 last year. The charge sheets were submitted before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mashiur Rahman on October 2. Those were transferred to the court of Chittagong metropolitan senior special judge the same day.
On October 20, the special judge’s court issued arrest warrants against Mridha and the seven others in two other cases related to the scam in recruiting fuel checker and assistant chemist posts.
On October 6, the same court issued arrest warrant against Mridha and four others in another case related to the recruitment of clerks.
Sources at the railway said the east zone had issued seven advertisements in October and November, 2010 to fill up 3,419 vacant posts in 38 categories.
The scam came into light after Mridha, Kibria, railway’s Dhaka divisional commandant Enamul Huq and Omar Faruk, sacked assistant personal secretary (APS) of the then railway minister Suranjit Sengupta, were detained by the Border Guard Bangladesh at its headquarters with Tk7m in a microbus on April 9 last year. It is learnt that the money was collected from the job seekers as bribe.
Driver Ali Azam, who took the vehicle into the BGB headquarters, has been remained missing, mysteriously, since the incident.