ACC presses charge against Orion chief Obaidul Karim

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday pressed charges against Orion Group Chairman Obaidul Karim and five high officials of Oriental Bank Limited in connection with embezzlement of around Tk 6.7 crore from its principal branch at Motijheel.
Besides, National Board of Revenue (NBR) filed separate tax evasion cases against detained Swechchasebak League General Secretary Pankaj Debnath and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Ward Commissioner Chowdhury Alam.
Meanwhile, the hearing on charge framing in a graft case against detained former deputy minister for land Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu and his wife Sabina Yasmin will be held today.
OBAIDUL KARIM CASE
ACC Assistant Director Rafiquzzaman, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Dhaka showing 12 people as prosecution witnesses.
Apart from Obaidul Karim, other charge sheeted accused in the case are former senior vice-president of Oriental Bank Ltd Shah Mohammad Haroon, senior assistant vice-president AQ Mahmud Ullah, former assistant vice-president Mohammad Fazlur Rahman, assistant vice-president Neyamutullah and executive officer ANM Raqibul Islam.
All the accused were shown absconding and the IO prayed for issuance of arrest warrants against them.
The IO included names of Neyamutullah and Raqibul in the charge sheet as their involvement with the corruption was found during the investigation, although their names were not mentioned in the First Information Report (FIR).
On February 1, ACC Assistant Director Abdul Latif filed the case against Karim and three others with Motijheel Police Station accusing them of embezzling Tk 6.7 crore.
In the FIR, Karim has been identified as chairman of Belhasa and Associates. Karim in collusion with others took 6.7 crore as loans using alias of a fake businessman. The accused embezzled the money in between June 26, 2005 and June 18, 2006 from the principal branch of the bank.
PANKAJ CASE
Assistant Tax Commissioner Begum Nashid Rizwana Monir of the NBR filed the case against Pankaj for evading tax on his income of Tk 92,61,456 for the fiscal years 2002 to 2007.
Senior Special Judge Mohammad Azizul Haq of the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court directed the jail authorities to produce Pankaj on September 2.
In the order, the judge said that he took the case for trial against Pankaj as the charges brought against him under sections 164/166 of the Income Tax Ordinance 1984 were found to be true.
On Sunday, a special court sentenced him to 13 years imprisonment in connection with a case filed for false wealth statements submitted earlier to the ACC.
ALAM CASE
The same court directed the jail authorities to produce Chowdhury Alam before the court on September 2 after Deputy Tax Commissioner Russell Chakma of the NBR filed the case.
In his complainant, Russell mentioned that Alam had evaded tax upon his income of Tk 1,17,59,795 for the fiscal years 2002 to 2007. Moreover, Alam did not give information about income and expenditure from different ways.
DULU CASE
The same court yesterday fixed today for hearing on charge framing against Dulu and his wife in connection with a graft case.
On August 21, the court in its order mentioned that Dulu's wife Sabina was absent in court on August 16 and so the trial will continue against her, as her bail was no more valid as per direction of the High Court.
Dulu was produced before the court yesterday during the hearing of the case.
On July 22, ACC Assistant Director Nurjahan Ahmed submitted the charge sheet against Dulu and his wife Sabina, showing 65 people as prosecution witnesses.
Earlier, Dulu's wife Sabina was granted ad interim bail from the High Court (HC) till submission of the police report.
The case was filed against them with Adabar Police Station on April 19 for concealing Tk 3, 06,55,246 in their wealth statements.