Nasrul accused of looting power sector

Staff Correspondent: Nasrul Hamid Bipu served as the state minister for Power for a long time during the Awami League government. He has built a huge syndicate of irregularities and corruption in the power sector while serving for a long time. Former Minister of State for Power Bipu himself has led this syndicate for the past one century. Besides, former Prime Minister’s advisor Tawfiq-e-Ilahi Chowdhury, former Principal Secretary Abul Kalam Azad and Ahmed Kaykaus along with members of the Bipu’s family were involved in this looting festival. This information has emerged in a report published in a national daily of the country.
It is known that Bipucircle used to collect money in at least 20 steps from undertaking any power project to approval. These included planning, site visit, approving machine documents, negotiation, project site selection, soil filling, land purchase, fixing power purchase price, starting power generation or commissioning, sending report to the ministry, purchase approval, bill approval, bill waiver. In other words, this syndicate had to pay money in every sector.
Besides, if the PDB chairman or minister signed, bribes had to be paid to seal the signature. Besides, from approving various purchases and development projects of various companies in the power sector, to placing, promoting and posting preferred officials in various purchase committees, this cycle used to grab billions of taka. This syndicate used to grab huge amount of money to go to the management stage of various companies. Apart from this, the syndicate members used to blackmail the project PD or the top officials of the company by reporting in various media with their own people.
As a reward for collecting the money, these members of the circle received lucrative benefits and unusual promotions.
The active members of that syndicate were the current chairman of PDB, engineer Mahbubur Rahman, two former chairmen and several chief engineers, former additional secretary Anwar Hossain, the younger brother of the state minister Intekhabul Hamid Apu and a nephew of the former bridge minister. And in charge of accounting of the illegal income of the syndicate was APS Mujahidul Islam Mamun of the state minister, the influential Shaheen chairman of Keraniganj and the public relations officer Mir Aslam.
They were known as the cashiers of all. Apart from this, the main craftsman of various works was the leader of various levels of Bangabandhu Engineering Council of PDB. At the time under discussion, more than Tk 100 crores entered the pockets of more than 100 companies through the syndicate.
Several officials of the power department and PDB said that if the activities of the current chairman of PDB are investigated, major irregularities and corruption in this sector will come out. Besides, former Secretary of Electricity Department Abul Kalam Azad and Ahmad Kaykaus were also involved in major irregularities. Both of them later served as the Chief Secretary to the former Prime Minister. And Tawfiq-e-Ilahi Chowdhury sat in the Prime Minister’s office and shook all the pin.
According to PDB data, about 100 power plants have been licensed to the private sector in 14 years. All the centers are sanctioned under the special act related to power and energy sector without any kind of tender. Although there have been allegations of irregularities, corruption and looting against these centers approved since 2010, no action has been taken. On the contrary, the government has blocked the way to justice by passing the impunity law.
In the investigation, it is known that Nasrul Hamid’s younger brother Intekhabul Hamid Apu and a nephew of the Minister of Bridges have contracted Tk 8000 crores worth of work through at least 4 companies in 5 years. After the formation of the interim government in the mass uprising of the students, this ghost has not disappeared from the power sector.
There are allegations that they have grabbed 12 mega projects from the power department in the IT sector alone. It is known that Dhaka Power Development Company (DPDC) and Northern Electricity Supply Company (NESCO) took over 2 projects named Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in the financial year 2020-2021. The cost of these two projects was Tk 2000 crore.
Apart from this, in the financial year 2021-2022, the same company grabbed another big mega project from DPDC in the name of establishing mobile apps and customer portal. The cost of this project was Tk 500 crore. In addition, Nasrul Hamid Bipu Bhai through an organization grabbed about 7 mega projects from DPDC, NESCO, Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB), Dhaka Electricity Supply Company (DESCO), Rural Electrification Board (REB) in the last 5 financial years. The total value of the projects was more than Tk 5 thousand crore.
On the other hand, they grabbed 8 mega projects from these 6 companies in the power sector in the name of setting up data centers through two big tech companies. Not only that, Nasrul Hamid Bipur misused his younger brother’s power to take over 8 mega projects called Network and Security through a company. Among them, on June 1, 2023, the Rural Electrification Board took over the installation of 500,000 meters from REB. The total cost of this project was Tk 2,300 crores.
According to sources, most of the looting was done through Powerco International Company. Most of which were owned by Nasrul Hamid Bipu’s family and relatives. The company is registered in Singapore and Bangladesh. Once Nasrul Hamid himself served as the chairman of Hamid Group. A family owned business operates multiple businesses through various subsidiary companies. Bipu was also the managing director in some of them. He and his family members also own a large number of shares in the companies.
According to documents filed with business regulators in Singapore and Bangladesh, Powerco’s major shareholder is an individual named Kamruzzaman Chowdhury. He is Nasrul Hamid Bipu’suncle. Kamruzzaman Chowdhury himself was involved with Hamid Group for a long time. His sons, brothers and brothers’ sons have served and are serving as top executives of the Hamid Group. An alternate director of Powerco International is Murad Hasan, according to documents filed in Singapore. He also served as the company’s Chief Operating Officer or COO.
According to government documents, as COO of Powerco, he directly participated in the negotiation of the Matarbari LPG terminal project with BPC. This Murad Hasan was the Chief Executive Officer or CEO of a subsidiary company of Hamid Group named ‘Delco Business Associate’.
During the 2014 parliamentary elections, Nasrul Hamid said in his election affidavit that he himself is the managing director of Delco. At that time, he also owned a significant number of shares in the company. Delco is currently owned by his son Zarif Hamid and younger brother Intekhabul Hamid.
Bipu’s younger brother Intekhabul Hamid himself is the managing director of several organizations of Hamid Group. Powerco International Managing Director Nabil Khan is connected with this Intekhabul Hamid. The Indian national runs a Dubai-based investment firm and the Middle East arm of a Singapore-based shipping line.
Another person involved with PowerCo is the company’s Assistant General Manager Tarek Khalil Ullah, who has been with the Hamid Group for a long time. He is a close associate of Intekhabul Hamid. A perusal of the documents revealed that two more officials of the Hamid Group were present at the RJSC office during the formation of Powerco. During the registration of Powercore as a company, these two persons were kept as witnesses. According to the identity card and LinkedIn profile of a witness named Jahangir Alam, he is an assistant manager of the Hamid Group.
According to government documents, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has received three complete proposals for constructing an LPG terminal in Matarbari. Competitors to the Marubeni-Vital-Powerco consortium were a consortium of Japan’s Mitsui Corporation and South Korea’s SK Gas, and a consortium with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation.
According to the investigation, Ahmed Kaykaus emerged as the godfather of corruption in the Ministry of Power when Sheikh Hasina was in power for the first time after the caretaker government. A former president of the Bangladesh Independent Power Producers Association (BIPPA) was Kaykause’s right-hand man at the time. Nasrul Hamid Bipu came to power in 2014. Khalid Mahmud became PDB chairman in August 2016.
Kaykaus’ leadership was then forced to bring the approval of all development projects in the power sector to the ministry. Then sitting in his room one after another commission trade was going on. This syndicate earns thousands of crores of rupees in this way. Allegedly, Maswara used to receive huge amount of money every month from Kaikaus United Group even when he was the secretary. It is known that Khaled Mahmud was promoted from superintendent engineer to become chairman because he was a syndicate member of Abul Kalam Azad.
He made PDB a paradise of grand corruption. He was entrusted with the task of collecting billions of takaevery month from rentals, quick rentals. His main work was to approve private power plants with Nasrul Hamid, to make committees for approval, to check the centers, to investigate the irregularities and corruption of the centers. He used to earn hundreds of crores of rupees every month for Nasrul Hamid by blackmailing him.
Electricity traders said that Nasrul Hamid did not do any business in the country. Most of his money was traded abroad.
Allegedly, many rental power plants were sanctioned which did not have any engines inside. Basically, these centers have been given capacity charge by sitting without purchasing electricity.
Later, this capacity charge was shared by the syndicate. Ahmed Kaykaus appointed him as chief engineer as a reward. Appointed as Managing Director in PGCB. There are allegations that he has committed massive irregularities and corruption even while sitting there. By creating an organization called Bangabandhu Engineering Parishad in PDB, corruption was established there.
Kajal Kanti Roy was a member of this council. Mohammad Yusuf was the director of purchasing department. Although the Anti-Corruption Commission has filed multiple complaints against the two, the Commission has not investigated any of the complaints so far. It is known that the ACC could not take any action against Nasrul Hamid and Mahbubur Rahman for their welfare. During the last term of Nasrul Hamid, PDB Chairman Mahbubur Rahman finalized the file of 27 solar based power plants.
Their total production capacity is 1360 MW. It is alleged that most of the owners of these 27 power plants are ministers-MPs of the former Awami League government. Among them, Nasrul Hamid Bipu’s younger brother Intekhabul Hamid Apu has 2 power plants. Besides, there is 1 of Naeem Razzak, 1 of former BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board) director Jalal Yunus, 1 of former foreign minister Hasan Mahmud, 1 of younger brother of former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed, 1 of Abdus Salam, 1 of former state minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam, 1 of Chota Monir of Tangail, former Religion Minister Faridur Rahman 1, Sylhet Habibur Rahman MP 1 and Rajshahi region MP 1 power plant. It is alleged that Mahbubur Rahman syndicate has grabbed crores of rupees to finalize the files of these power plants.