Former BASIC Bank chairman Bachchu faces ACC quizzing

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday grilled former BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu for the fifth time over the charges of illegal wealth accumulation.

Mr Bachchu arrived at the ACC headquarters in the city's Segunbagicha at around 10:00am where he was interrogated by an ACC team led by Director Syed Iqbal Hossain, according to ACC's public relations department.

Earlier on May 15, the former BASIC Bank boss skipped the scheduled date for interrogation by the national anti-graft body.

He, however, sought two months' time showing 'illness' as a reason for not participating in the interrogation but the ACC granted him two weeks to appear before its headquarters.

Mr Bachchu has been facing interrogation by the ACC over alleged money laundering and illegal wealth accumulation by him and Tk 35 billion loan fraud from bank during his tenure as chairman.

The commission, after nearly four years of investigation, filed a total of 61 cases -- 56 in 2015 and 5 in 2017 -- with three police stations in Dhaka accusing 156 individuals including 26 bank officials excluding Bachchu.

Bachchu was appointed as the chairman of the bank in 2009 which was renewed in 2012. He resigned from the post in 2014 in the middle of allegations of colossal loan scams of the bank.

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