Report against Hasina on Dec 10

A Dhaka court has set December 10 for submission of the investigation report in a case against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 16 others over alleged irregularities in the award of a toll collection contract for the Meghna-Gomti Bridge.

Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Shahjahan Kabir fixed the date on Sunday after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) failed to submit the report on the scheduled date.

According to the case documents, CNS Ltd was awarded the toll collection contract in 2016 through a single-source procurement process, allegedly after an ongoing valid tender process was cancelled.

CNS was paid a service charge of 17.75 per cent of the total toll collection, with the resulting bills amounting to around Tk489 crore. In contrast, toll management of the same bridge from 2010 to 2015 cost just over Tk15 crore, while a similar three-year contract awarded to UDC Construction Ltd from 2022 to 2025 cost Tk67 crore.

The ACC alleges that awarding the contract through the single-source process caused the state an estimated loss of around Tk309 crore.

The case was filed on October 12 last year against Hasina and the others under various sections of the Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.