‘Spare us the harassment’

A former director of KDS Group yesterday claimed that his former employer is harassing him and his family, filing a total of 28 false cases with fabricated and manipulated documents.

Munir Hussain Khan, former director of KY Steel and KYCR Coil Industries, made the allegations in a press briefing at Chattogram press club, after serving nine months in jail in the cases. He came out on bail recently.

According to KDS officials, KDS Group filed these cases alleging that Munir embezzled Tk 600 crore during import of raw materials for their factories, stole a car, shopped for himself and family and travelled abroad with family members using company credit card.

Munir said in his written statement, "The company implicated me and my family members in 28 cases. Although my father, brother and wife never worked for KDS, the company also implicated them in the cases just to harass us."

"I joined the KDS group in 2007 following request of my friend leaving a decent life in USA, where I was serving as a vice president at a US bank in Florida. I quit KDS in the wake of an argument at a meeting in 2018, and one year later I joined Apollo Steel," he said, adding that  KDS started filing the cases 20 months after he left the company.

"KDS first filed a case against me alleging I stole a car from their office in Chattogram, although I was in Dhaka that day. Police have submitted a final report of the case, as no incident of theft was found," added Munir.  

He also urged the KDS Group to give him and his family members relief from the false cases. 

Munir's father Muazzam Hussain Khan and brother Mehedi Hussain were present at the press conference. 

Contacted, Ahsanul Haque, legal advisor of KDS Group told The Daily Star, "In this digital era, it is easy to steal a car without being there physically. We don't understand how the police gave the report without recovering the car."

He also said every case they have filed is based on documents.

Asked why 28 cases had to be filed, he said, "According to law, separate cases have to be filed against each annual audit report."

Since discrepancies were found in multiple reports, a number of cases were filed, he said.

Asked why the cases was filed so long after he quit his job, he said,  "The cases were filed only when authorities came to know about the irregularities. The company trusted Munir, and he misused this opportunity to make false documents for audit, and did not allow anyone else to look into this matter."

About filing cases against his family members, Ahsanul Haque said, "Munir has spent the money on his wife and family, so cases have been filed against them too."