The High Court (HC) on Thursday directed the concerned bodies of the government to conduct a probe into the money laundering allegations against owners of controversial ecommerce platform E-Orange.
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) have also been ordered to submit a report after inquiring into the money laundering allegations before the HC in four months.
An HC bench of justices Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed in this regard.
On behalf of 547 defrauded consumers, Afjal Hossain, Arafat Ali, Tarequl Alam, Sakibul Islam Shohag, Rana Khan and Habibullah Zahid filed the petition on April 3 this year.
The court 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 action 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 action against the responsible persons including Sheikh Sohel Rana, Sonia Mahjabin and Bithi Akter for laundering money.
The HC 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 it among E-Orange's defrauded consumers, including the petitioners, according to the proportion of their loss.
Secretaries of commerce and home ministries, Bangladesh Bank's governor, Anti-Corruption Commission's chairman, Inspector General of Police (IGP), the head of the BFIU, Sheikh Sohel Rana, a patron of E-Orange, Sonia Mahjabin, proprietor of E-Orange, and Bithi Akter have been asked to comply with the rule.
Lawyers Ahsanul Karim and Abdul Qaium appeared in the hearing on behalf of the petitioners while Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state.
Lawyer Abdul Qaium later said, "The court also asked to inform it about the steps taken to repatriate the accused persons, including Sohel Rana, if they have fled the country."
On August 17, last year, customers filed a case against owners and staff of E-Orange for reportedly embezzling around Tk 11 billion by not delivering their products.
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