ACC quizzes Gautam

Facing grilling by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Gautam Kumar Mitra yesterday denied his involvement in the embezzlement of Tk 71 crore from the Agargaon branch of Sonali Bank.
He pocketed the amount in the same way Tanvir Mahmud of Hall-Mark Group embezzled Tk 2,686 crore from the state owned bank by opening inland letters of credit (ILC) and later selling those to other banks.
The ACC summoned Gautam, chief executive officer of Green Printers, to its office nearly two months after The Daily Star through an independent investigation had divulged the scam.
At that time the embezzled amount was Tk 53 crore, but now it has soared to Tk 71 crore, said Sonali Bank officials.
In response to queries from the ACC investigators, Gautam claimed that he was none in Green Printers.
“It is natural that he will deny his involvement, but it is our job to dig into the scam,” an ACC official told The Daily Star.
Gautam had opened ILCs for procurement of yarn and other accessories from the local market and took acceptance in these bills by the Agargaon branch of Sonali Bank. He then sold those bills to 26 branches of 16 banks and pocketed Tk 71 crore, which the state-owned bank is liable to pay to other banks.
Many of these bills bear no original signatures of Agargaon branch officials. Gautam forged those bills and withdrew the money from those banks, according to Sonali Bank officials.
He took every step so cunningly that in the event of Green Printers failing to repay the loans, he would not be charged first and the responsibility would be on the "owner" of the company.
Investigation by this newspaper found that Gautam is the chief executive officer of Green Printers and chairman of Global Associates, the mother company of Green Printers.
Though Gautam operated the business solely, he showed one Abul Hossain, a small garment trader in Narayanganj, as the proprietor of the company on paper.
Some banks where Gautam sold the ILCs also confirmed that it was Gautam who had dealt with them, not Abul.
The ACC, said an official, will now summon Abul Hossain and later bring Gautam face to face with him.
Hailing from Shingasulpur union of Sadar upazila in Narail, Gautam enrolled at Dhaka University in the mid-1980s. He got involved in student politics and became the convener of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal's DU unit in 1990.
He bagged BNP's nomination from Narail-1 constituency in the 1991 parliamentary polls. Though his party came to power winning that election, he conceded a heavy defeat to Awami League's Dhirendra Nath Saha.