Agrani Bank boss arrested on 1st day of job

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) arrested Agrani Bank Ltd's acting managing director Mizanur Rahman Khan on Thursday afternoon, only hours after he officially took up his new position, on charges of embezzling nearly Tk100 crore. ACC Deputy Director Benazir Ahmed led the team that arrested Mizanur, along with the bank's Deputy General Manager Akhtarul Alam and Assitant General Mnager Shafiullah. “The new MD [acting] was arrested on allegations of embezzling money in the name of giving loan for the construction of Sun Moon Star Plaza in Kallyanpur, Dhaka,” the ACC deputy director told the Dhaka Tribune. Mizanur, who was deputy managing director in the bank, was additionally appointed to take up the post of acting MD by the Ministry of Finance, soon after after Bangladesh Bank fired managing director Syed Abdul Hamid on the allegation of loan irregularities on Wednesday and sent an official letter in this regard on Thursday morning. When contacted, Motijheel police station OC Omar Faruque said a case of misappropriation of money has been filed with the police station accusing several Agrani Bank senior officials, including the arrested three and the recently sacked MD. He said the police station has also provided the ACC with police members when it asked in order to make the arrest. However, Sub-Inspector Nishat Jahan, duty officer at the police station, said Benazir Ahmed filed the case under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act around 3:05pm on Thursday against seven Agrani Bank officials and one businessman. The other suspects are: former deputy MD Mofazzal Hossain, retired deputy general manager Amirul Islam, former principal officer at Agrani Bank head office Rafiqul Islam, and Mijanur Rahman, proprietor of the Moon Bangladesh Ltd, the constructor of Sun Moon Star Plaza. Seeking anonymity, an ACC official told the Dhaka Tribune that Mizanur was arrested in Motijheel. However, according to his colleagues, he was arrested in his new office. Agrani Bank Chairman Zayed Bakth told to Dhaka Tribune: “Mizanur came in to the office today, joining as the acting MD, and a few hours later he was arrested by the ACC. But we were not officially informed about that.” The ACC launched the enquiry against the suspected embezzlers in the bank in September 2015. According to the case filed with Motijheel police station, the suspects illegally approved a loan of Tk108 crore to Moon Bangladesh Ltd for the building, even though there was no evidence of legal ownership of the plot it was supposed to be built in, and the building did not have a Rajuk-approved design. The case states that the suspects sanctioned the loan to Moon Bangladesh Ltd and then embezzled around Tk94.8 crore from the loan.