‘Family of money launderers’
The Supreme Court yesterday observed that Mahbubul Haque Chisty, former chairman of Farmers Bank audit committee, used his entire family in "criminal activities of money laundering".
It's found from the case documents that Chishty, his wife Rozi Chishty and their son Rashedul Haque Chishty and daughter Rimi Chishty are involved in laundering Tk 159 crore, which they took from Farmers Bank in the name of Bakshiganj Jute Spinner, said Justice Muhammad Imman Ali, a judge of the Appellate Division of the SC, while hearing two petitions regarding the issue.
Justice Imman Ali is a senior member of a full bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, which was hearing a leave to appeal petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission challenging a High Court verdict that granted bail to Rashedul Haque Chishty in the case.
The apex court was also hearing another bail petition filed by Rashedul.
The Appellate Division adjourned hearing of both the petitions till June 1 and asked Rashedul's lawyer AF Hasan Ariff to submit -- by this time before it -- documents in their favour.
Earlier in the day, lawyer Ariff told the court that the money was received as foreign remittance to the Bakshiganj Jute Spinner.
The only allegation against his client Rashedul is of transferring three bank accounts from Dhaka's Gulshan Branch to Bakshiganj Branch in Mymensingh involving Tk 55 lakh, he said.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan opposed the petition, saying that the accused have not even refunded one taka to the state.
The trial court has recorded statements from 11 out of 20 witnesses in the case, and the proceedings are expected to be over in a few months, he said.
Contacted, lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said the Farmers Bank's name has been changed to Padma Bank since the scams.
Mahbubul and Rashedul are now in jail while Rozi and Rimi are on bail in the cases filed against them for misappropriating money from the bank, he said.
The ACC filed the case with Gulshan Police Station in April 2018 against the four and few others on charges of laundering Tk 159 crore.
On January 26, the HC upheld a lower court order that granted bail to Rashedul in the money laundering case.
The HC rejected a revision petition filed by the ACC challenging the lower court order. A Dhaka on May 19, 2020 granted bail to Rashedul in the case. Then ACC filed the revision petition with the HC.
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