Will the big loan defaulters remain untouched?
HC questions
28 November 2022
Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Sunday raised question as to why the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was not bringing the big loan defaulters, who are misappropriating thousands of crores of taka to justice.
While holding hearing on a revision petition the High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat also questioned, "Will the big loan defaulters remain untouched?"
The High Court said the loan defaulters are not more powerful than the law. Then why the Anti-Corruption Commission is not taking effective actions against the major loan defaulters, asked the court?
The ACC is busy catching only the small loan defaulters, but not the major ones, the HC bench also observed.
The ACC filed the petition seeking cancellation of a lower court order that granted bail to ASM Hasanul Kabir and Jannatul Mawa, two former officials of Shahjalal Islami Bank, in connection with a loan scam case.
Naqibul Islam, a former manager of Shahjalal Bank's Eskaton Branch in Dhaka, filed the case against 12 people with the Ramna Police Station in 2013 over embezzlement of Tk 1.1 billion by Bismillah Group from the bank.
The HC bench also expressed dissatisfaction at the ACC for not submitting charge sheet of the case though a long time has elapsed.
According to the case documents, a charge sheet was submitted against 14 people including ASM Hasanul Kabir and Jannatul Mawa on October 29 in 2015 in the case. Later a trial court on October 17 in 2017 granted bail to two bank officials including Hasanul Kabir.
Then the ACC filed petition with the High Court seeking cancellation of the bail. Following the petition the HC issued a rule on January 8 in 2018 over cancellation of their bail granted by the trail court. It also asked the ACC to reinvestigate into the case.
The rule came to the cause-list for hearing on Sunday. While hearing the rule on Sunday the HC said that the case was filed in 2013 for misappropriation of Tk 1.1 billion. However, the case has not been disposed of yet. Who will catch the big loan defaulters, questioned the court.
Lawyers Khurshid Alam Khan and MA Aziz Khan appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the ACC, while lawyer Md Ziaul Haque appeared for the bail petitioners and Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state.
