A court in Dhaka has indicted gold trader Md Monir Hossain alias Golden Monir in a case filed for illegal possession of firearms.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge KM Imrul Qayesh passed the order on Monday after rejecting a discharge petition filed on his behalf.
The court will start recording testimonies of prosecution witnesses on September 8.
Monir pleaded not guilty to all the charges and prayed for justice.
On January 26, Detective Branch (DB) of Police Inspector Abdul Malek submitted two separate chargesheets against him -- for possession of firearms and possession of narcotics -- to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court.
On May 11, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed a case against him and three others under the Money Laundering Prevention Act.
On June 8, Judge KM Imrul Qayesh passed an order to freeze all of Monir's bank accounts.
According to the case documents, Monir owns around 30 plots, over a dozen buildings and two car showrooms, all of which were bought with his illegally earned money.
The CID also brought allegations against Monir to the effect that he deposited over Tk791 crore in 129 bank accounts during his involvement with gold smuggling. Only Tk6.18 crore is currently available in those accounts.
On November 20 last year, elite police unit Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Golden Monir from his Merul Badda residence in Dhaka.
They seized a foreign-made pistol, bullets, foreign liquor, currencies of ten countries, eight kilograms of gold ornaments and Tk1.9 crore at the end of a 12-hour raid.
Following the raid, RAB filed three cases against him under the Arms Act, Narcotics Control Act and Special Powers Act.
