A Pabna court on Sunday granted bail to 12 farmers of Ishwardi upazila of Pabna, who were arrested allegedly for defaulting on loans taken from Bangladesh Samabaya Bank.
Judge Mohammad Shamsuzzaman of Senior Judicial Magistrate Court passed the order, reports Bangla Tribune.
The farmers are Alam Pramanik, 50, Mahatab Mandal, 45, Kitab Ali, 50, Hannan Mia, 43, Md Maznu, 40, Md Atiar Rahman, 50, Abul Hossain, 40, Abdul Gani Mondal, 50, Shamim Hossain, 45, Samad Pramanik, 43, Noor Baks, 45, Md Akram, 46, and Mohammad Rajab Ali, 40.
All of them are marginal farmers, reports Bangla Tribune.
On Thursday and Friday, police arrested the 12 farmers out of the 37 accused, in the loan default case filed by Bangladesh Samabaya Bank. They were later sent to jail.
Bangladesh Samabaya Bank provided loans of Tk25,000 to Tk40,000 per person to a group of 37 marginal farmers in 2016.
Later in 2021, Syed Mozammel Haque Mahmud, the then manager of the bank, filed a case against the farmer as they allegedly did not repay the loans.
Several farmers and their families claimed that most of the borrowers have repaid their loans within a year.
They mentioned that they have the documents and deposit slips with them, but that money was embezzled by some field-level officials of the bank.
They added that they have been harassed over someone else's deed.
Syed Mozammel Haque Mahmud, the plaintiff of the case, said: "The case was filed on the orders of the higher authorities because the farmers did not repay their loans. There is an ongoing process for recovering the defaulted loans.”
