A Dhaka court yesterday sent two officials of Dhaka Bank to jail after they were handed over to police in connection with the theft of Tk 3.77 crore from the vault of the bank's Bangshal branch.

Rifatul Haque, 33, in-charge (cash), and Emran Ahmed, 46, manager (operations), were arrested on Thursday after the bank authorities handed them over to Bangshal Police Station and lodged a general diary.

Police took them to the court and requested it to send them to jail as there was a chance that they could go into hiding.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Masud-ur-Rahman fixed June 21 for hearing their bail petitions and sent them to jail.

Dhaka Bank Managing Director Emranul Huq said it was detected on Thursday during a routine audit that the money had gone missing from the vault.

"The accused individuals confessed to the audit team that they were involved in the matter," he said.

The audit team members said Rifatul wrote on a stamp that he stole the money at different times in 2018 and 2019 and spent it gambling.

The statement added that he used to replace Tk 500 bills with Tk 100 bills in bundles of Tk 500. But he used to keep the Tk 500 on the outside to avoid detection.

He further stated that he alone was involved in the crime.

Dhaka Bank officials said Emran, the other accused, was handed over to police for his failure in duties.

In his forwarding letter to the court, Sub-inspector Pradip Kumar Sarker wrote that the arrestees were entrusted with taking care of the vault and its keys were with them.

According to the complaint received by police, the audit team found Tk 3,77,66,000 missing from the vault and informed Abu Bakar Siddique, manager of the Bangshal branch, about it.

The duo confessed to misappropriating the amount, while Siddique interrogated them, the letter reads.

It mentions that the alleged crime was an offence under Section 409 of the Penal Code and that it is for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate.

The ACC has been informed and delivered the documents necessary to pursue legal actions in this regard, it added.

The officer also wrote that there was a chance that the accused could go into hiding and requested that they be kept in jail.

Earlier on Wednesday, the detective branch of police told a press briefing that a racket led by an IT officer of Dutch Bangla Bank Limited allegedly embezzled Tk 2.57 crore by manipulating the electronic journal of the bank's ATM machines.

This was also detected during an internal audit.

In January 2020, a bank official was held in Rajshahi on charges of stealing Tk 3.45 crore from Premier Bank's vault and using the money to gamble online.