Basic Bank scam: Bachchu remains scot-free 6 months after charge framing
Gulam Rabbani :
Former Chairman of Basic Bank Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, who is believed to have masterminded the bank’s Tk 45 Billion loan scam, still remains untouched by both the law enforcement agencies and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), even after six months of charge sheet submission in 58 cases. The charge sheets were submitted in the court in June this year.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said Abdul Hye Bachchu is a fugitive in the eye of law. However, the lawyer could not confirm whether Bachchu is absconding inside or outside the country.
When the charge-sheets were submitted in the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge, a prayer was also made there to issue an arrest warrant against Bachchu.
However, no arrest warrant has been issued by the court yet, said the lawyer adding that if the court wants to issue an arrest warrant directly, it can, otherwise it can also issue an arrest warrant after hearing the charge-sheets.
Lawyer Mir Ahmed Ali Salam, another counsel for the ACC, said arrest warrants will be issued directly against the accused when the court will take the charges into cognizance.
The charge sheets may be taken into cognizance in next January, also said the lawyer.
Bachchu on August 9, after the submission of the charge sheets, filed a petition with the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in 58 cases filed over money embezzlement through loan scams.
The High Court bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Aminul Islam was scheduled to hear the bail application, however, the plea was not presented before it, said lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan.
Lawyer Mir Ahmed Ali Salam opined that there is no scope to seek anticipatory bail after submission of the charge sheets. During the investigation of the cases, one accused may seek anticipatory bail.
The lawyer said only 2/3 out of 147 accused are now behind the bar. The rest of the accused including Bachchu are absconding.
On June 12, this year the ACC approved the charge sheet against former BASIC Bank Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and 146 others in connection with 59 cases filed over embezzlement of Tk 22.65 billion.
The commission, however, did not implicate the then-board members who were at the helm of the bank when the massive embezzlement took place between 2009 and 2013.
At that time, there were about 10 to 11 members on the board of the Basic Bank and most of them were either running or former government employees.
Between 2009 and 2013, Tk 45 billion was swindled out of Basic, once a healthy public bank. Of the sum, more than 95 percent was sanctioned by the board.
In 2015, the ACC filed 56 cases in connection with the scam, but curiously neither Bacchu nor any of the board members were named as accused although multiple probes indicated their involvement. Later, four more cases were filed.
However, the charge sheet against Bacchu, a former member of the parliament, took eight years to come by.
Of the 59 cases, Bacchu was made accused in 58 cases, according to officials with knowledge of the proceedings. The ACC implicated 101 clients and 45 bank officials in the cases.
The High Court expressed its dissatisfaction several times as the ACC could not finish its investigation into the scam even after a long time.
Finally on November 29 in 2022, the HC ordered ACC to complete the investigation of all the cases filed in the Basic Bank scam within three months.
It also asked the ACC to submit a report with it. Otherwise, appropriate legal action will be taken against the anti-graft body, warned the HC.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the direction while delivering a verdict on three bail petitions. The ACC finally approved its probe report on June 12.
