The High Court today asked the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to inform on the steps taken by Bangladesh Bank against its 5 accused deputy governors and other officials involved in the embezzlement of Tk 3,700 crore.
The court asked the ACC to inform on the steps within October 27.
The HC bench of Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder and Khijir Hayat verbally pronounced the order, after taking a recently published report in daily newspaper ‘Kalbela’ into cognizance.
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Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan represented the ACC during the hearing while Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin represented the state.
DAG Amin Uddin said the bench asked the lawyers to read the report and present their statements before the hearing began today.
According to the report, 249 officials of Bangladesh Bank, including five deputy governors, were involvement with the financial scam of Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company Ltd (BIFC) and International Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (ILFSL).
With the help of these officials of three departments of the central bank, Prashanta Kumar Halder and Major (retd) Mannan embezzled a hefty amount of money which was revealed in a report of a high-powered probe committee formed at the directive of the High Court.
Two reports in this regard have already been submitted to the central bank’s governor, it said.
Tk 3700 crore was embezzled, taking loans from 2 capital market-enlisted financial organizations: BIFC and ILFSL. Out of this, from ILFSL, Tk 3,130 crore was taken against the name of PK Halder, who is currently imprisoned in India, and his various organizations. From BIFC, Major (retd) Abdul Mannan, Secretary General of Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, and his organization embezzled Tk 600 crore.
This plundering was going on for several years but the insiders of these organization and the responsible officials of Bangladesh Bank remained silent about the matter, said the report.
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Three deputy governors, 6 executive directors, 11 general managers (GMs) and 15 deputy general managers (DGMs) and 124 other officials at various levels who served in the Financial Institutions and Markets Department of Bangladesh Bank from 2009 to 2020 were held responsible in the report.
Besides, a total of 51 people including two deputy governors and executive directors of the Bank and Financial Institutions Inspection Department have been held responsible.
Also name of two deputy governors, eight executive directors, five GMs and a total of 29 officials of the financial institution inspection department came up in this report.