DHAKA: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) submitted charge sheet against former state minister of Bangladesh Abul Hasan over Padma Bridge graft scam.

Canadian police submitted charge against Abul Hasan and Julfikar Ali Bhuiyan on September 26, but the matter was disclosed on Saturday.

Central media office of RCMP Corporal Lucy Shorey made the disclosure.

On April 18, World Bank banned Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin with a record-setting sanction, barring the firm and 100 of its subsidiaries from bidding on any of the bank’s development projects for the next decade, after SNC admitted that it conspired to bribe several Bangladeshi public officials in an effort to secure a $50-million bridge contract.

The World Bank’s announcement about SNC also expanded the list of countries where the embattled engineering company has been accused of corruption.

The bank said it has uncovered evidence that SNC conspired to bribe public officials in Cambodia and that it has passed that information along to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who are already probing the company’s activities in Libya, Algeria and Bangladesh.

BDST: 1049 HRS, SEP 28, 2013
AKA/BSK