A Dhaka court has instructed the authorities concerned to publish advertisements in two national daily newspapers asking former chief justice SK Sinha and 10 others to appear before court on February 20.
Judge KM Imrul Kayes of Senior Special Judges’ Court passed the order yesterday after receiving reports on execution of arrest warrant issued earlier against them.
On January 5, the court issued an arrest warrant against CJ Sinha and 10 others, for their alleged involvement in embezzlement and money laundering, after accepting a charge sheet against all the accused where they were shown as fugitives.
The arrest warrant also included former Farmers Bank managing director and CEO AKM Shameem, former first vice president Swapan Kumar Roy and Shafiuddin Askaree, senior executive vice president and former head of credit division Gazi Salauddin, former chairman of the bank’s audit committee Mahbubul Haque Chisty, and former vice president M Lutful Haque.
Four others accused, who were clients of Farmers Bank, are Md Shahjahan, Niranjan Chandra Saha, Niranjan’s uncle Ranajit Chandra Saha and Ranajit’s wife Santee Roy.
On December 10, ACC Director Benazir Ahmed, also the case investigation officer, submitted the charge sheet at this court.
Prior to that, ACC Director Syed Iqbal Hossain filed the case against them with the anti-graft watchdog’s Integrated District Office 1 on July 10, 2019.
According to case details, former chief justice Sinha and 10 others were accused of embezzling Tk4 crore from Farmers Bank, which has since been rebranded as Padma Bank Ltd.
This was the first time in the history of Bangladesh that a former chief justice was charged in such case.
The ACC found that both Niranjan and Shahjahan deposited Tk2 crore each into Sinha’s personal account in Sonali Bank, transferred from their accounts at Farmers Bank’s Gulshan Branch, by separate pay orders in 2016.
The two had collected the money with a loan from the Farmers Bank, which was allegedly processed illegally and without following due process, with the help of the accused bank officials.
