Three former officials asked to surrender

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has asked three former officials of the Agrani Bank’s Agrabad branch in Chattogram to surrender in a case filed in connection with loan embezzlement of Tk 1.55 billion.

The officials are— Senior Principal Officer Udoy Kumar Biswas and Principal Officers Md Shahjadul Alam and Yeasmin Faruki. 

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order on Monday after hearing a petition, filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) against a High Court order that granted bail to these three people in the case.

The apex court also stayed the High Court order that granted bail to them. It also asked the trial court concerned to issue an arrest warrant if the officials don’t surrender before it.

Lawyer AKM Fazlul Haque who appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the ACC said, “The apex court upon hearing our petition stayed the High Court order granting bail to them and asked the three officials to surrender in the trial court.”

However, the court did not say anything about the time within which they will have to surrender, added the lawyer.

According to the case documents, ‘Mohammad Elias Brothers Group’, known as MEB Group, took a loan worth Tk 1.55 billion from the Agrani Bank’s Agrabad branch in Chattogram without any collateral. However, the loan receivers did not pay the loan later.

Later Md Shamsul Alam, a Deputy Director of the ACC, filed a case on May 16 in 2018 with the Double Mooring Police Station in Chattogram on charge of misappropriation of bank money through fraud, corruption, abuse of power and breach of trust.

The three officials got High Court bail in the case on April 5 this year. Later the ACC filed a petition against the High Court order.

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