THE legal battle for recovering about $66 million of the $101 million stolen money from the Bangladesh Bank is still almost a mystery though five years elapse since the country’s biggest ever reserve heist was detected, report a national daily on Saturday. In Bangladesh CID is yet to produce the probe report to the court although it got 45 times of extension. On the other hand, a case in a New York court is set to start hearing soon while a similar case was earlier turned down.
Meanwhile, suspicion is long shrouding as to why CID is not filing the case report to the court and the court is also routinely allowing extensions. It seems to be a mutual game to tend people to wonder if the delay is part of a cover up of involvement of highly placed people within Bangladesh Bank who cooperated with international hacker in breaking the vault. One may not be wrong to doubt that some important officials within the bank had worked with international hackers group and disclosure of their identity may be highly politically consequential for the government.
Media report said Managing Director of a private bank in a confessional statement on Thursday to ACC in connection with money laundering of over Tk 10,000 crore by banker P K Halder and his gang from several banks and non-banks financial institutions made sensational disclosure. He has identified two senior Bangladesh Bank officials for sheltering the mischief over the years. One is an Executive Director and the other is a former Deputy Governor who was very powerful when money heist had occurred from Bangladesh Bank. He has been barred from leaving the country and one may rightly doubt whether they were anyway responsible for money heist from the central bank.
We wonder whether the continued leg dragging to submit police report to the court is part of a big cover up. As it appears there is no accountability and transparency in our system of governance run by highly corrupt and greedy people. The central bank’s money heist case may not see an end since our government is denying sharing police report with Philippines prosecutors probing the case.
