Three people, including former justice AFM Mesbah Uddin, have been granted bail in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over allegations of causing Tk741 crore in losses to the government by leasing old and faulty Egyptian aircraft.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Sabbir Faiz granted bail on Wednesday.
The court’s bench assistant, Md Riaz Hossain, said the other two individuals granted bail are former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, retired Air Marshal Jamal Uddin Ahmed, and the airline’s former director Fazle Kabir.
They surrendered before the court and sought bail, which was granted after a hearing.
Earlier, on 5 November, the court accepted the charges against 18 individuals, including AFM Mesbah Uddin and several Biman officials.
Arrest warrants were issued for seven absconding defendants.
Those with outstanding warrants include former Biman directors Khorshed Alam Chowdhury, Air Vice Marshal Abu Esrar, retired Major General Abul Hossain, and Dhaka University professor Iqbal Ahmad.
Several accused had already been granted bail, including Captain Ishrat Ahmed, former Director (Flight Operations), Deputy Chief Engineer Md Shafiqul Alam Siddique, former Principal Engineer Debesh Chowdhury, Shahid Uddin Mohammad Hanif, former aircraft mechanic and current engineer Md Sadekul Islam Bhuiya, Principal System Engineer (Structure) Sharif Ruhul Quddus, retired Deputy Chief Engineer Md Shahjahan, Engineer Officer (Retd) Md Zahid Hossain, Principal System Engineer Ashok Kumar Sardar, Engineer Officer Hiralal Chakraborty, and Lutfor Rahman.
The case was filed by ACC Deputy Director Jesmin Akter on 6 February 2023. According to case documents, in 2014 Biman Bangladesh Airlines leased two Boeing 777-200ER aircraft from Egypt Air for a five-year period.
Although the planes entered service in February 2015, one aircraft engine failed shortly after, prompting the airline to lease a replacement engine from Egypt Air.
Within 18 months, the second engine also broke down, and another replacement engine had to be leased from Egypt Air. Even these engines failed within a short period. The defective engines were later sent to a US-based facility for repair, but no definite timeframe was set for their return.
As a result, Biman Bangladesh Airlines had to bear the costs of both Egypt Air and the repair facility, leading to a total financial loss of TK741 crore to the state, according to the ACC’s allegations.
