bdnews24.com :
A Dhaka court has sent Crescent Group Chairman MA Kader to jail custody in three cases over alleged laundering of around Tk 9.2 billion.
Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate or CIID officials produced Kader in court on Thursday after arresting him in the capital on Wednesday.
Metropolitan Magistrate Jasim Uddin rejected Kader’s bail petition and ordered officials to send him to jail custody.
CIID investigator Anwar Hossain told the court it
was necessary to keep Kader in jail as the directorate may need to grill him in custody in the future.
Abul Kalam Azad, the lawyer for the Crescent chairman, said his client was a “victim of his business rivals’ vengeance”.
He also argued that the Anti-Corruption Commission, not the CIID, has the authority to prosecute Kader.
Azad alleged the CIID started the cases after arresting Kader, which Azad said was not as per the rules for such cases. Abdullah Abu, the state counsel for Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court, said the cases do not aim to harass Kader.
“We will prove the charges during trial,” he said.
Kader sent “tens of billions of taka” abroad between 2015 and 2018 but the money was not used for the stated purpose of importing goods, according to Abu.
The CIID move came after three cases were started against him, three directors of the group and 13 officials of the Janata Bank at Chawkbazar Police Station over the transfer of the money through three sister concerns of the group.
Those accused in the cases include Rimex Footwear Chairman Abdul Aziz and Managing Director Litul Jahan Mira, and Managing Director of Crescent Tanneries and Crescent Leather Products Sultana Begum Moni.
Rimex Footwear, Crescent Tanneries and Crescent Leather Products were used in transferring the money abroad in phases, CIID said in a media release.
The Imamganj branch of the state-owned Janata Bank cleared the money against import bills of the three firms, but failed to get the money back, according to the release.
A Dhaka court has sent Crescent Group Chairman MA Kader to jail custody in three cases over alleged laundering of around Tk 9.2 billion.
Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate or CIID officials produced Kader in court on Thursday after arresting him in the capital on Wednesday.
Metropolitan Magistrate Jasim Uddin rejected Kader’s bail petition and ordered officials to send him to jail custody.
CIID investigator Anwar Hossain told the court it
was necessary to keep Kader in jail as the directorate may need to grill him in custody in the future.
Abul Kalam Azad, the lawyer for the Crescent chairman, said his client was a “victim of his business rivals’ vengeance”.
He also argued that the Anti-Corruption Commission, not the CIID, has the authority to prosecute Kader.
Azad alleged the CIID started the cases after arresting Kader, which Azad said was not as per the rules for such cases. Abdullah Abu, the state counsel for Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court, said the cases do not aim to harass Kader.
“We will prove the charges during trial,” he said.
Kader sent “tens of billions of taka” abroad between 2015 and 2018 but the money was not used for the stated purpose of importing goods, according to Abu.
The CIID move came after three cases were started against him, three directors of the group and 13 officials of the Janata Bank at Chawkbazar Police Station over the transfer of the money through three sister concerns of the group.
Those accused in the cases include Rimex Footwear Chairman Abdul Aziz and Managing Director Litul Jahan Mira, and Managing Director of Crescent Tanneries and Crescent Leather Products Sultana Begum Moni.
Rimex Footwear, Crescent Tanneries and Crescent Leather Products were used in transferring the money abroad in phases, CIID said in a media release.
The Imamganj branch of the state-owned Janata Bank cleared the money against import bills of the three firms, but failed to get the money back, according to the release.
