Money laundering case: Trial against SK Sinha begins with deposition of plaintiff
Trial of the money laundering case against former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and 10 others began today at a Dhaka court with deposition of the complainant.
Meanwhile, four accused -- former first vice-president of Farmers Bank Ltd Swapan Kumar Roy and its vice-president M Lutful Haque, M Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha -- were granted bail after they surrendered before the court today, seeking bail in the case.
SK Sinha and three others are on the run.
On August 13, the same court framed charges against SK Sinha and 10 others.
Today, Judge Shaikh Nazmul Alam of the Special Judge Court-4 of Dhaka recorded statement of complainant Syed Iqbal Hossain, a director of Anti-Corruption Commission, for an hour.
Later, lawyers for seven accused -- Mahbubul Haque Chisty, AKM Shamim, Gazi Salahuddin, M Lutful Haque, Swapan Kumar Roy, M Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha -- cross-examined the witness.
The judge then fixed August 25 for next hearing of the case.
In his statement, the witness told the court that during his inquiry he found that two persons -- M Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha -- opened two current accounts at Gulshan Corporate Branch of Farmers Bank Ltd on November 6, 2016.
In their applications, they had used their addresses of Uttara residential area which belongs to SK Sinha.
The following day, they submitted two separate applications for sanctioning an amount of Tk 4 crore as loan. Soon after getting the applications, the then branch manager and others, without scrutinising the applications signed and the same day they forwarded those sanction letters to principal office for next course of action.
The principal officer, violating the bank rules and regulations, on November 8, 2016 issued two pay orders of Tk 4 crore in the name of M Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha to their current accounts.
On November 9 the same year, the amount was deposited to a savings account of SK Sinha at Sonali Bank Ltd in Supreme Court Branch.
SK Sinha had withdrawn the money in cash and through pay orders on different dates and transferred those to different places.
The bank officials, in collusions of other accused, sanctioned the loan even though they had no sole power to do so, the complainant continued.
The complainant also said that Shahjahan and Niranjan are very poor and they have no ability to run any business even though they have introduced themselves as businessmen.
Moreover, the accused submitted a deed of 32 decimal property of Sashtri Roy situated in Savar which does not fulfill the terms and conditions of the bank rules.
After confirming their involvement with money laundering through fake documents, the inquiry report was submitted to the commission officer in July last year.
The commission then gave approval for filing a case against those involved with the incident and the complainant on July 10 filed the case with its Integrated District Office-1 of Dhaka against SK Sinha and 10 others, the witness added.
On December 10 last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission pressed charges against the 11 persons in connection with the case.
Justice Sinha resigned on November 11, 2017, from abroad. He is now in the US.
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