Why Bacchu won't be implicated?
The High Court has asked the authorities concerned to explain within four weeks why the Anti-Corruption Commission chief should not be directed to implicate BASIC Bank's former chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and its ex-board members in a Tk 154 crore loan scam case.
The court also issued a rule upon the ACC chairman, finance secretary, Bangladesh Bank governor, and managing director of BASIC Bank, asking them to show cause as to why the ACC chief will not be ordered to conduct a further investigation into the loan scam in the interest of justice.
The HC bench of Justice Md Ruhul Quddus and Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabarti came up with the rule on Monday after hearing a writ petition filed as public interest litigation by retired banker Harun-ur-Rashid from Begumganj of Noakhali.
The anti-graft watchdog in September filed 56 cases against some BASIC Bank officials and borrowers, leaving Bacchu and the ex-members of its board of directors unscathed.
The cases came after the ACC's enquiry into the Tk 4,500 crore BASIC Bank scam couldn't find Bacchu's involvement in it. Bacchu allegedly masterminded the biggest banking fraud in Bangladesh.
The outcome of the ACC probe surprised many as the central bank found Bacchu's complicity in the loan scam that took place between 2009 and 2012.
The central bank first inspected the state-run's Gulshan, Shantinagar and Dilkusha branches in 2012 and found evidence of serious anomalies in approving loans. It again conducted a special inspection at those braches the following year before giving details of the scam to the ACC.
In July last year, the BB sent to the ACC a report on the scam with details of how a section of borrowers embezzled money from the bank on forged documents.
According to the report, the BASIC Bank board and its credit committee at the headquarters ignored the negative observations of bank branches on a number of loan proposals and approved those without following due procedure.
The BB report also mentioned how Bacchu arbitrarily approved loans against fake papers and inflated mortgages.
Bacchu resigned as chairmen of the bank. The government later dissolved its seven-member board.
However, the petitioner only mentioned about five board meetings, all chaired by Bacchu, which gave approval of loans amounting Tk 154 crore.
Apart from Bacchu, the members of the board who were present in those meetings are responsible for the swindling money from the bank. But they were not held liable, petitioner's counsel Muntasir Uddin Ahmed told The Daily Star.
He said the writ petition was filed seeking the HC's directive on the ACC to implicate Bacchu and the board members in the scam case.
The petition didn't name the board members. There was also no mention about when the meetings took place.
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