SK Sinha graft case hearing adjourned till November 12

A Dhaka court on Sunday adjourned till November 12 the hearing of a case against 11 people, including former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, for allegedly embezzling Tk4 crore from the then-Farmers Bank and laundering the money abroad.

Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam of Dhaka Special Judge’s Court 4 issued the order after a new prosecution witness (PW) testified in the case on the day.

Ahsan Habib, computer operator of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), appeared as the seizure list witness and submitted his deposition. Afterwards, he was cross-examined by the defence.

A total 11 out of 18 prosecution witnesses have so far testified in the case.

Dhaka Special Judge’s Court 4 framed charges in the case on August 13. Investigation Officer (IO) and ACC Director Benjir Ahmed filed the charge-sheet in the case with the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge KM Imrul Qayes on December 10, 2019.

The court transferred the case to Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 for further proceedings on February 20 this year.

The other accused are: former managing director of Farmers Bank AKM Shameem, first vice-presidents Swapan Kumar Roy and Shafiuddin Askaree, and senior executive vice-president Gazi Salauddin, vice-president M Lutful Haque, bank’s entrepreneur director Md Mahbubul Haque Chisty alias Babul Chisty, bank clients Md Shahjahan, Niranjan Chandra Saha and his uncle Ranajit Chandra Saha and Ranajit’s wife Santree Roy.

According to the charges, Md Shahjahan and Niranjan took the money on loan from then Farmers Bank and it was later transferred to Justice Sinha’s Sonali Bank account. The money was shown as earned from the sale of SK Sinha’s house.