Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Thursday summoned 280 loan defaulters from People’s Leasing and Financial Services Limited (PLFS), a non-banking financial institution, directing them to appear before it on February 23 to submit their explanations on this issue.
A one-member bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after accepting a list submitted by PLFS on the names of the loan defaulters from the institution.
Barrister Mejbahur Rahman took part in the hearing on behalf of the provisional liquidator of the People’s Leasing and Financial Services Limited, while Barrister Kazi Ershadul Alam appeared for the Bangladesh Bank.
Mr Mejbahur Rahman said, “The PLFS is on the process of winding up. In this situation, the HC’s company bench had sought the list of the loan defaulters from PLFS in November last year. And accordingly the list was submitted to the HC bench on November 23.”
After going through the list, the HC bench on Thursday issued a show cause notice on the 280 loan defaulters and summoned them to appear before the court on February 23, lawyer Mejbahur Rahman added.
The lawyer also said, “We submitted the names of more than 500 loan defaulters from the People’s Leasing and Financial Services Limited. After scrutiny the High Court summoned 280 loan defaulters.”
The minimum loan amount of the borrower is more than Tk 0.5 million and there are also several borrowers who have a loan of more than Tk 2.0 billion, also said the lawyer.
Meanwhile, another HC bench sought details including names, addresses and statuses of the officials of Bangladesh Bank’s three departments who were in charge of overseeing financial institutions and money laundering issues from 2008 to 2020.
The bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Mohi Uddin Shamim passed the order during hearing on a suo moto (voluntary) rule issued in this regard.
The court also asked the Bangladesh Bank governor and other officials concerned to inquire if the officials of that period were responsible for the bankruptcy of the financial institutions of the country and to submit reports on February 15.
At the same time, the bench rejected a petition filed by Md Asaduzzaman Khan, provisional liquidator of the People’s Leasing and Financial Services Limited and also deputy general manager of the Bangladesh Bank to become a party in the case.
Bangladesh Bank appointed its Deputy General Manager Md Asaduzzaman Khan as the provisional liquidator of PLFS on July 14 in 2019 complying with a order of the High Court.
