HC orders seizure of 10 cars, Tk 25m FDR of E-orange owner

The High Court on Sunday ordered seizure of Tk 25 million in fixed deposit receipt (FDR) and 10 vehicles of Sonia Mahjabin, the owner of the scam-hit e-commerce platform E-orange.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after hearing a writ petition.
Lawyers Abdul Qaium appeared for the writ petitioners in the hearing, while Shamim Khaled Ahmed appeared for Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and Deputy Attorney General Saifuddin Khaled represented the state.
Abdul Qaium said, "The court has ordered the seizure of FDR and the cars until further instructions in this regard. The BRTA chairman has been ordered not to hand over the cars and has been asked to submit a report on the location of these vehicles."
The court has set July 23 as the date for the next hearing, said the lawyer.
On behalf of 547 consumers, who were defrauded by buying products worth Tk 770 million from E-orange, Afjal Hossain, Arafat Ali, Tarequl Alam, Sakibul Islam Shohag, Rana Khan and Habibullah Zahid filed the writ petition in April last year.
Upon hearing the petition, the High Court on April 7 in 2022 directed the government bodies concerned to conduct a probe into the allegations of money laundering against the owners of E-orange.
BFIU and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had also been asked to submit a report to the HC in four months after inquiring into the money laundering allegations.
The HC also issued a rule upon the respondents to explain in four weeks as to why the inaction and failure of them in taking appropriate legal measures against the responsible persons, including Sheikh Sohel Rana, a police inspector and also patron of E-orange, Sonia Mahjabin, proprietor of E-orange, and Bithi Akter, for laundering money obtained from consumers, should not be declared illegal.
It also wanted to know in the rule as to why the respondents should not be directed to take appropriate legal actions against the responsible persons, including Sohel Rana, Sonia Mahjabin and Bithi Akter, for laundering the money.
It also wanted to know in the rule as to why the respondents should not be directed to recover the money from Sohel Rana, Sonia Mahjabin, Bithi Akter and other responsible persons and to distribute the amount among the defrauded consumers of the E-orange, including the petitioners, as per the proportion of their loss.

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