HC orders BRAC Bank to pay Tk 1.5m to Jahalam

The High Court (HC) ordered BRAC Bank authorities on Wednesday to pay Tk 1.5 million as compensation to Jahalam, a jute-mill worker. He spent three years in jail in a case filed for misappropriation of Tk 185 million, instead of the real culprit.
BRAC Bank authorities have been asked to pay the money within one month after receiving the HC order. After complying with the order, they have to inform it in writing to the Supreme Court registrar general office within one week.
The HC bench of Justice F R M Nazmul Ahasan and Justice K M Kamrul Kader delivered the verdict after hearing a 'suo moto' rule. The rule was issued earlier after a SC lawyer - Amit Das Gupta - brought some news reports on wrongful detention of Jahalam to the HC's attention.
BRAC Bank is one of the banks by which the cheques of the embezzled money were cleared.
During investigation of the case, two officers of BRAC Bank - Shaymoli Branch's manager Sabina Sarmin and Asad Gate Branch's operation manager Md Faysal Kayes - went to Jahalam's work place. They identified him as Abu Salek, who took the loan and embezzled the money.
The court also expressed dissatisfaction over the role of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in this regard, as its high officials did not supervise properly work of the 11 investigation officers.
The newly-appointed 11 officers, involved in the case, showed their incompetence, negligence and inefficiency in the investigation, opined the court.
The court hoped that the ACC will not assign such inefficient and incompetent officers for investigating any case in future.
The court also hoped that the ACC, which is a constitutional, independent and powerful body - working to protect people's rights, will not act in such a way that people can raise questions.
The court asked the ACC and other authorities concerned to take initiatives immediately for disposing of the cases, filed for misappropriating Tk 185 million, and the departmental proceedings, initiated against the accused officials of BRAC Bank and Sonali Bank.
Jahalam had been arrested on February 6, 2016, after being misidentified as Abu Salek, who was the actual accused in 33 cases that the ACC had filed in 2014 over loan fraud and embezzlement of Tk 185 million from Sonali Bank.
When the ACC sent for Salek, the summons went to the address of Jahalam, who, in turn, met officials of the corruption watchdog, and insisted that he was not Salek.
He also told the ACC that the photo that had been used to open the Sonali Bank account was not his.
But the bank's officials still identified him as Salek, and the jute-mill worker was eventually arrested in Ghorashal following the ACC's green signal.
On May 27 of the same year, Jahalam was transferred to Dhaka Central Jail-2.
In January 2019, several media reports brought the matter of Jahalam's innocence to the ACC's attention, initiating further investigation into the matter.
The HC, on January 28, 2019, summoned four officials, including a representative of the ACC chairman, to explain as to why Jahalam had been in jail custody for the last three years instead of the original accused.
The court also issued a 'suo moto' rule upon the respondents to explain in four weeks as to why the confinement of Jahalam should not be declared illegal.
After hearing the ACC officials, the HC on February 3 last year directed the jail authorities to release Jahalam, and he was released from jail on February 4.
After hearing the rule in detail from the parties concerned, the court delivered the verdict on Wednesday.
During hearing of the rule the court heard lawyers Amit Das Gupta, Khurshid Alam Khan, Suvas Chandra Das and others.

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