A Dhaka court on Tuesday finished hearing testimonies of prosecution witnesses in a case against former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on charges of embezzling Tk4 crore from a bank and siphoning it off to foreign countries.
Dhaka Special Judge 4 Sheikh Nazmul Alam fixed August 29 to hear the defendants following the cross-examining of the prosecution witnesses, including investigating officer Benazir Ahmed, an ACC director.
A total of 20 out of 21 prosecution witnesses have testified before the court in the case.
The trial opened on August 13 last year with the court indicting the former chief justice and 10 others.
ACC Director Benazir had filed the charge sheet in the case with the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge KM Imrul Qayes on December 10, 2019.
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The court, however, on February 20, 2020 transferred the case to Dhaka Special Judge Court 4.
The ACC filed the case on July 10, 2019 over the embezzlement of Tk4 crore from the then Farmers Bank, which was later renamed Padma Bank.
The others accused in the case are former Farmers Bank managing director AKM Shameem, first vice-presidents Swapan Kumar Roy and Shafiuddin Askaree, senior executive vice-president Gazi Salauddin, vice-presidents M Lutful Haque and Md Mahbubul Haque Chisty alias Babul Chisty, bank clients Md Shahjahan, Niranjan Chandra Saha, his uncle Ranajit Chandra Saha and Ranajit's wife Santi Roy.
According to the case details, Md Shahjahan and Niranjan had taken the money on loan from the bank, which was later transferred to Sinha's Sonali Bank account, showing it was earned from the selling of the former justice’s house. The amount was later siphoned off.
Sinha stepped down from the post of chief justice on November 11, 2017 while abroad. He currently resides in the United States.
