Jatiya Party MP Shawkat’s bail to be scrapped if he doesnot pay Tk25cr

The High Court today directed Jatiya Party lawmaker Shawkat Chowdhury to pay Tk 25 crore to Bangladesh Commerce Bank Ltd in 50 days in connection with two loan scam cases involving Tk 94 crore.

If Shawkat does not pay the amount in 50 days after receiving the order, his bail in the relevant loan scam cases will automatically be cancelled, the HC said.    

The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim came up with the verdict after hearing a suomoto rule issued earlier over legality of the lower court orders of bail in the cases, Barrister M Sarwar Hossain, the lawyer for Bangladesh Commerce Bank Ltd, told The Daily Star.

The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the two cases with Bangshal Police Station in Dhaka on May 8 and 10 last year accusing Shawkat Chowdhury, a Jatiya Party lawmaker from Nilphamari-4, the then managing director of Bangladesh Commerce Bank Md Asaduzzaman and its then manager of Bangshal branch Habibul Gani and six others.

The case statements say, Shawkat, also managing director of M/S Jamuna Agro Chemical Ltd, allegedly misappropriated Tk 94 crore from the branch in collusion with the other accused through 31 letters of credit between December 2012 and March 2015.

Shawkat got bail from the lower court concerned on September 8 and October 4 last year. 

During hearing the bail petitions filed by two other detained accused of the cases, the HC on November 24 last year issued the suomoto rule asking lawmaker Shawkat to explain why the lower court orders granting him bail in two loan scam cases involving Tk 94 crore should not be cancelled.