Former MD of bank among nine doubly jailed

A Dhaka court Wednesday doubly jailed nine persons, including former Managing Director of the state-owned Sonali Bank Humayun Kabir, on two counts of charges of "embezzlement" and "cheating".
They were sentenced to 10 years in jail in one case filed on charge of embezzling Tk 2.7 million.
Judge of the special court-5 of Dhaka Md Iqbal Hossain delivered the verdict after concluding the trial of the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commis-sion (ACC).
The eight other convicts are former Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Mainul Haque, General Manager Noni Gopal Nath, Deputy General Managers Sheikh Altaf Hossain and Md Safiz Uddin Ahmed and Assistant General Managers Saiful Hasan and Kamrul Hossain Khan and managing director of Paragon Knit Composite Limited Saiful Islam Raja and director of the company Abdullah Al Mamun.
The court gave each of them 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and also fined Tk 2.7 million on charge of embezzling as much money.
"The fines will be deposited with government exchequer," the court says in the sentences.
Apart from this, the court handed down 7 years' imprisonment to each of them and fined Tk 50 thousand on a charge of cheating. In default they will have to serve three months more in jail.
"Both sentences will run concurrently, with each of the convicts serving 10 years in prison," says the verdict.
Former Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Mainul Haque, Deputy General Managers Sheikh Altaf Hossain and Md Safiz Uddin Ahmed and Assistant General Manager Kamrul Hossain Khan were present during the delivery of verdict.
The court issued arrest warrant against five other accused.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Ramna Model Police Station in 2013 on a charge of defalcation of more than Tk 2.7 million. Following an investigation, Moshiur Rahman, an assistant director of the ACC, submitted the complaint to the court in 2014.
The convicts in the case were also suspects in other cases the ACC filed over the Hall-Mark scam. Humayun, who was suspended from the bank, went into hiding after the court had issued arrest order against him.
Humayun, the then managing director and CEO of Sonali Bank, the largest state-owned bank, was charged with embezzling Tk 25 billion through the Hall-Mark scam.
In 2021, a Dhaka court ordered jail sentences for Humayun and 10 others over the embezzlement of Tk 13.7 million.

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