A Cox's Bazar court has issued arrest warrants against former deputy commissioner Ruhul Amin, former district and sessions judge Sadikul Islam Talukder, and three others in connection with a case related to Matarbari thermal power plant.

The five are accused of removing their names from the case involving the embezzlement of Tk 20 crore during land acquisition for the thermal power plant.

The alleged forgery included falsifying the complainant's signature and tampering with the case documents.

The three other accused are advocate Mostaq Ahmed Chowdhury, who worked at the Cox's Bazar District and Sessions Judge Court; Swapan Kanti Pal, a Nazir (overseer of collectorate) from the deputy commissioner's office; and Zafar Ahmed, a stenographer at the District and Sessions Judge Court.

The arrest warrants were issued on Thursday by Munshi Abdul Majid, senior special judge of Cox's Bazar.

Public Prosecutor Siraj Ullah confirmed that the court accepted an Anti-Corruption Commission report on forgery and issued the warrants.

According to the investigation, on July 1, ACC Assistant Director Riaz Uddin submitted a report to the Senior Special Judge Court, seeking arrest, search, and seizure warrants against the accused.

Court records reveal that on November 19, 2014, Kaisarul Islam Chowdhury, a resident of Matarbari, filed a case against Ruhul Amin and 27 others, accusing them of embezzling Tk 20 crore allocated for land acquisition for the Matarbari power plant. The court had ordered an ACC investigation into the matter.

Shortly after, Sadikul, the then-district and sessions judge, allegedly dropped Ruhul Amin's name from the case documents and forwarded them to the ACC headquarters. Upon discovering the forgery, Kaisarul Islam filed a separate case against Ruhul Amin, Sadikul and five others.

Following an investigation, the ACC submitted a report on July 1, naming five accused individuals and recommending the exclusion of government prosecutor Abdur Rahim and former additional deputy commissioner SM Shah Habibur Rahman from the case.