A Dhaka court has sentenced seven former officials of Oriental Bank, which was later renamed ICB Islamic Bank, to life term imprisonment for misappropriating Tk1.7 crore.
Judge Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman of the Dhaka Special Judge's Court 5 Tuesday pronounced the verdict in absence of all the convicts, now on the run.
The court also fined them Tk1 lakh each under section 409 of the Penal Code. It gave them seven years' jail sentence and fined Tk20,000 under section 420 of the Penal Code.
Additionally, the officials were given seven-year jail term and fined Tk1.7 crore under section 5 (2) of the Prevention Of Corruption Act.
According to the case documents, the convicts embezzled Tk1 crore by forming a fake company named M/S Modern Builders.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Motijheel police on December 29, 2006 and submitted the charge sheet against the accused on December 31, 2012.
The convicts are former deputy general manager Emamul Haque, former senior vice-president Shah Mohammad Harun, former senior assistant Abul Kashem Mahmudullah, former assistant vice-president Fazlur Rahman, former executive officer and vice-president Torikul Alam, former senior executive vice-president Mahmud Hossain and former executive vice-president Qamrul Islam.
Their punishment will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender. The court recorded depositions of eight witnesses in the case.
Some of the officials were sentenced to different jail terms in at least two cases.
According to the corruption watchdog, approximately Tk34 crore was embezzled from the Oriental Bank between 2005 and 2006. Some 34 cases were filed against its officials over the embezzlement.
In June 2006, Bangladesh Bank took over full control of the Oriental Bank, operating since 1987, for its "inefficiency and unbridled corruption" in operating the bank, and in the interest of the depositors. It was renamed as ICB Islamic Bank in 2009.
In August last year, six of the seven officials were sentenced to seven years in prison for forming a fake company with a businessman named Bakar Hossain as its owner and disbursing a loan worth Tk1 crore. Bakar was given 10 years' jail sentence. They were also fined around Tk14 lakh each.
In December 2007, a special court, trying high-profile corruption suspects, sentenced Obaedul Karim, a major shareholder of the troubled bank, to life-term imprisonment for inter-branch debit account fraud. Karim was also fined Tk6.7 crore and his properties worth Tk6.7 crore confiscated. Five other officials were jailed.
