Money laundering: transactions happened as per instruction of SK Sinha, nephew tells court

The nephew of former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha today completed his deposition before a Dhaka court in a money laundering case.

Judge Shaikh Nazmul Alam of the Special Judge's Court-4 of Dhaka recorded the statement of Shankhajit Sinha.

But the defence for the accused declined to cross-examine the witness as he did not mention their clients' names in the statement.

The judge then fixed February 2 for the next hearing of the case.

In his statement, Shankhajit told the court that as per direction of SK Sinha, a joint account was opened at Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd's Uttara Branch in the names of SK Sinha's elder brother Narendra Kumar Sinha and him in which Tk 2.25 crore was transferred without their knowledge.

He said that he did not know anything about transactions from their joint account. Later Tk 78 lakh was transferred to his personal account at Dhaka Bank Ltd's EPZ branch in Savar.

Shankhajit also said as per SK Sinha's direction, he opened two FDRs of Tk 50 and 10 lakh at Dhaka Bank Ltd's Uttara branch and the rest Tk 18 lakh was deposited to Dhaka Bank's EPZ branch.

Shankhajit further said all the functions, including opening of joint account and transactions from the account, were done as per direction of SK Sinha.

On December 28 last year, SK Sinha's elder brother Narendra Kumar Sinha gave his statement before same court.

Sixteen out of 18 prosecution witnesses, including the complainant, gave their statements so far.

Seven of the accused were present at the court today while SK Sinha and three others are absconding.

On December 10 of 2019, the ACC pressed charges against SK Sinha 10 others in the case.

On August 13 last year, the same court framed charges against them.

Justice Sinha resigned on November 11, 2017, from abroad. He is now in the USA.