HC orders seizure of 10 cars, Tk 25 million FDR of E-orange owner
Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Sunday ordered to seize of Tk 25 million in fixed deposit receipt (FDR) and 10 vehicles of Sonia Mahjabin, owner of the controversial e-commerce platform E-orange.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after hearing a writ petition.
Lawyers Abdul Qaium appeared for the writ petitioners in the court hearing, while Shamim Khaled Ahmed for Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and Deputy Attorney General Saifuddin Khaled represented the state.
Abdul Qaium said, “The court ordered the seizure of FDR and the cars till further orders. The BRTA chairman has been ordered not to hand over the cars and has been asked to submit a report on the location of these vehicles.”
The court has set July 23 as the date for the next hearing, said the lawyer.
On behalf of 547 consumers, who were defrauded by buying products worth Tk 770 million from E-orange, Afjal Hossain, Arafat Ali, Tarequl Alam, Sakibul Islam Shohag, Rana Khan and Habibullah Zahid filed the writ petition in April last year.
Upon hearing the petition, the High Court on April 7 in 2022 directed the concerned bodies of the government for conducting a probe into the allegations of money laundering against the owners of the controversial ecommerce platform E-Orange.
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had also been asked to submit a report after inquiring into the money laundering allegations before the HC in four months.
The High Court also issued a rule upon the respondents to explain in four weeks as to why the inaction and failure of them in taking appropriate legal action against the responsible persons including Sheikh Sohel Rana, a police inspector and also patron of E-Orange, Sonia Mahjabin, proprietor of E-Orange, and Bithi Akter for laundering money obtained from consumers should not be declared illegal.
It also wanted to know in the rule as to why the respondents should not be directed to take appropriate legal action against the responsible persons including Sheikh Sohel Rana, Sonia Mahjabin, and Bithi Akter for laundering money.
It also wanted to know in the rule as to why the respondents should not be directed to recover the money from Sohel Rana, Sonia Mahjabin, Bithi Akter, and other responsible persons and to distribute it among the defrauded consumers of the E-Orange including the petitioners according to the proportion of their loss.
