Court Correspondent :
The trial in the Money Laundering case against former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and 10 others began on Tuesday at the Special Judge Court-4 of Dhaka with recording the deposition of the complainant.
However, four accused in the case- namely former First Vice-President of Farmers Bank Limited Swapan Kumar Roy and another Vice-President M Lutful Haque, M Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha were granted bail after their surrender in the court yesterday, with bail plea in the case. But, SK Sinha and three others are on the run.
On August 13, this court framed charges against SK Sinha and 10 others in the case. On Tuesday, Judge Shaikh Nazmul Alam of the Special Judge Court-4 recorded statement of complainant Syed Iqbal Hossain, a Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), for an hour.
Later, lawyers for seven accused Mahbubul Haque Chisty, AKM Shamim, Gazi Salahuddin, M Lutful Haque, Swapan Kumar Roy, M Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha cross-examined the witnesses. The judge then fixed August 25 for next hearing in the case.
In the statement, the complainant (witness) told the court that during his inquiry he found, two persons- M Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha, opened two current accounts with Gulshan Corporate Branch of the Farmers Bank Limited on November 6, 2016.
In their applications, the accused had used their addresses of Uttara residential area which belongs to SK Sinha.
The following day, they submitted two separate applications for a loan of Tk four crore. Soon after getting the applications, the then Branch Manager and others, without scrutinising the applications signed and the same day they forwarded those sanction letters to the Principal Office for next course of action.
Besides, the Principal Officer, disobeying the bank rules and regulations, on November 8, 2016 issued two pay orders of Tk four crore in the name of M Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha for transfer to their current accounts.
On November 9 of the same, the amount was deposited in a savings account of SK Sinha at Sonali Bank Limited in the Supreme Court Branch.
SK Sinha had withdrawn the money in cash, and through pay orders on different dates and transferred those to different places. The bank officials in collusions of other accused, sanctioned the loan even though they had no actual authority to do so, the complainant said.
The complainant added that Shahjahan and Niranjan are very poor and they have no ability to run any business even though they have introduced themselves as businessmen.
Moreover, the accused deposited a deed of 32 decimals property of Sashtri Roy situated in Savar which does not fulfill the terms and conditions of the bank rules.
After confirming their involvement with money laundering through fake documents, the inquiry report was submitted to the Commission Officer in July last year.
The commission then gave approval for filing a case against those involved with the incident and the complainant on July 10 filed the case with its Integrated District Office-1 of Dhaka against SK Sinha and 10 others, the complainant further added.
On December 10 last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission pressed charges against the 11 accused of the case.
Justice Sinha resigned on November 11, 2017, from abroad. He is now in the US.
