Hall-Mark chairman lands in jail

Jasmine Islam, chairman of controversial business firm Hall-Mark Group, was sent to jail by a Dhaka court yesterday, hours after she surrendered to it in connection with 11 corruption cases.
She sought bail in the court, but Metropolitan Magistrate Joynab Begum denied her bail.
On Sunday, Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Mohammad Zahirul Haque cancelled her bail and asked her to surrender before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court (CMM) of Dhaka within three days.
The same court on February 7 had granted her bail on condition that she and her company would repay Tk 2,600 crore swindled out of Sonali Bank.
The High Court on Monday asked the law enforcers to arrest Jasmine, wife of the company's Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud, if she would not surrender to the CMM court within two days as per the trial court order.
It also directed the government not to let Jasmine leave the country.
The Anti-Corruption Commission on October 4 last year had filed the cases against 27 top officials of the state-owned Sonali Bank and Hall-Mark Group for swindling Tk 2,600.
According to a Bangladesh Bank investigation, Hall-Mark in connivance with some bank officials pocketed the amount from the Ruposhi Bangla branch of Sonali Bank on forged documents.