Court sends BASIC bank ex-MD to jail in embezzlement case

Court Correspondent :

A Dhaka court on Tuesday rejected the bail petition of A Monaem Khan, former Deputy Managing Director of state-owned BASIC Bank, and sent him to jail in 10 embezzlement cases filed in 2015.

Judge Mohammad Ash-Shams Joglul Hossain of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court passed the order after Monaem Khan surrendered before the court seeking bail in the cases.

Earlier on different dates, the same court accepted the charges brought against BASIC Bank’s former Chairman Abdul Hye Bacchu and others and issued arrest warrants against them because they did not get bail from any other courts of the country.

Abdul Hye Bacchu has not surrendered in any other courts in the country yet.

ACC Public Prosecutor Mir Ahmed Ali Salam confirmed the media.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in June last year submitted the charge sheets against Bacchu and 146 others in connection with 59 cases filed over embezzlement of Tk 2,265 crore.

Of the 147 accused, 46 are bank officials and 101 are clients, ACC sources said.

According to a Bangladesh Bank enquiry, around Tk 4,500 crore was siphoned out of BASIC Bank between 2009 and 2013 when Abdul Hye Bacchu chaired the bank’s board.

In 2015, the ACC filed 56 cases in connection with the scam, but neither Bacchu nor any of the board members were named as accused although multiple probes indicated their involvement. Later, four cases were filed.