Southeast Bank has sent its managing director, Nuruddin Md Sadeque Hossain, on three months' forced leave, effective from Monday.

The private commercial bank's officials told The Daily Star that the new board of directors had decided to conduct an audit into alleged irregularities that took place during the tenure of its former chairman, Alamgir Kabir.

Sadeque was sent on leave to investigate his involvement in those irregularities, they added.

Deputy Managing Director Abidur Rahman Chowdhury will take charge as managing director in addition to his present assignment during Sadeque's absence.

Within a month of the political changeover in August last year, the Alamgir Kabir era at Southeast Bank, which lasted nearly 20 years, was over.

The bank's board elected M A Kashem, the founding chairman of the bank, as chairman in September.

In 2021, five founder directors of the bank raised allegations of irregularities against Kabir.

They had sent a letter to then Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir, stating that the bank's deposits were in danger because the chairman was engaged in corruption, fraud, and money laundering.

The founder directors also said other directors and shareholders were "very annoyed" by Kabir's monopolistic power.

The Daily Star tried to contact the bank's incumbent chairman Kashem and managing director Sadeque, but neither responded to phone calls till the filing of this report.

Since the political changeover, more than half a dozen banks have sent their managing directors on forced leave ahead of audits in line with central bank instructions.