AB Bank loan scam: HC blasts ACC, cops for failure to make arrests
The High Court yesterday blasted the Anti-Corruption Commission and the police for their failure to arrest the 15 accused of a case filed for the embezzlement of Tk 176 crore from AB Bank.
"We have directed more than six months back to arrest all the accused of the Tk 176 crore embezzlement case. But why they were not arrested? We want to know the reasons," the HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo said during the hearing of a bail petition filed by accused Md Shahidul Islam and Abdur Rahim.
The bench ordered the ACC, inspector general of police (IGP), additional IGP of immigration to submit reports on what steps they have taken to arrest the accused.
The court also fixed June 26 for further hearing on the bail petition of Shahidul and Rahim.
Earlier in the day, ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told the court that Ershad Ali, an accused, has been handed over to the police when he came to the HC for bail in the case.
Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik informed the HC bench that four accused of the case, including Ershad, are in custody.
Lawyer Touhidul Islam appeared for Shahidul and Rahim.
On December 7 last year, the HC directed the ACC and police to arrest 14 former officials of AB Bank Ltd and a businessman in seven days in connection with the Tk 176 crore embezzlement case and also asked the authorities concerned of the government to impose a travel ban on the 15.
The ACC filed the case with its integrated office in Dhaka on June 9 last year against 17 people, including 16 former officials of AB Bank.
According to the case statement, the accused former bank officials forged signatures, abused their power by giving six fake work orders and seven illegal bank guarantees without approval, and took out loans worth Tk 176.18 crore.
Afterwards, they transferred the money to their personal accounts.
The accused are: Proprietor of Ershad Brothers Corporation Ershad Ali; former Executive Vice-President (EVP) and Branch Manager (now retired) of AB Bank ABM Abdus Sattar; former AVP and Relationship Manager Abdur Rahim; SVP and former Relationship Manager Anisur Rahman; AVP Ruhul Amin and Shahidul Islam; EVP and Head of CRM at head office Wasika Afrazi; former VP Mufti Mustafizur Rahman; former SE VP and Head of CRM (now retired) Salma Akhter; AVP OCRM member of Head Office Mohammad Emarat Hassan Fakir; former Principal Officer of AB Bank (currently Principal Officer of Mutual Trust Bank) Touhidul Islam; member of SVP and CRM of AB Bank Shamim-e-Mershed; member of VP and CRM of the same bank at head Office Khandaker Rashed Anowar; member of AVP and CRM Sirajul Islam; VP and member of Credit Committee of AB Bank Mohammad Mahfuz-ul-Islam; former DMD and MD (now retired) and Head of Credit Committee of AB Bank Ltd (Head Office) Moshiur Rahman Chowdhury; former MD (now retired) AB Bank Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury.
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