Gulam Rabbani :
The High Court imposed ban on leaving the country of 20 persons including all the present shareholder-directors and the top executives of the International Leasing and Financial Services Limited (ILFSL).
Secretary of the Ministry of home Affairs is directed to seize the passports of all those persons and to collect the detailed information about them.
The court also directed the authorities concerned not to transfer any of their movable and immovable properties, including stock, cash-money, cars etc to any person or entity till disposal of the case filed with the High Court in this regard.
The court also directed the secretary to take necessary steps with utmost priority without squandering any time so that the aforesaid persons cannot leave the country in any way and the secretary is directed to inform the court within 15 days.
Bangladesh Bank is directed to issue necessary directions to all the banks and financial institutions of the country asking them to freeze all the accounts of the shareholder-directors and the top executives of the ILFSL. The accused persons are, MA Hashem (Chairman), M Nurul Alam (Director and Managing Director of Shaw Wallace Bangladesh Ltd), Md Zahirul Alam, FCA (independent director), Nasim Anwar, FCA (independent director), Bashudeb Banerjee (independent director), Papia Banerjee (independent director), Momtaz Begum (independent director), Md Nowsherul Islam (independent director), Md Anwarul Kabir (independent director) and Engineer Md Nuruzzaman (independent director).
The list also included the names of Muhammad Abul Hashem (independent director), Rashedul Haque (managing director of the company), and PK Halder and his relatives, namely, mother-Lilaboti Halder, brother-Pritish Kumar Halder, wife-Susmita Saha, cousins- Amitav Adhikari, and Avijit Adhikari, ex-managing director of Bank Asia Limited Erfanuddin Ahmed and one Uzzal Kumar Nondi.
Referring some new cuttings, petitioners’ lawyers said in the court that former director of the company PK Halder embezzled Tk 2000 crore from the company and now remains incommunicado.
Upon reading the news items published in the newspapers, the lawyers agitated in the court that by opening a number of fake companies in the name of PK Halder’s mother-Lilaboti Halder, brother-Pritish Kumar Halder, wife-Susmita Saha, cousins- Amitav Adhikari, and Avijit Adhikari, ex-managing director of Bank Asia Limited Erfanuddin Ahmed and one Uzzal Kumar Nondi managed to grab the money of not only the ILFSL, but also the money of other financial institutions and banks.
The High Court also appointed Ibrahim Khaled, former deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank, as an independent director and chairman of the International Leasing and Financial Services Limited.
At the same time, the court removed the present chairman of the financial institution, MA Hashem, from his post, but he shall remain on the Board of Directors of the company.
The court ordered the managing director of the company to send a letter to the Bangladesh Bank regarding the appointment of the new chairman of the company.
The new chairman shall be paid a monthly honourium of Tk Three lakh with well furnished independent office room, said the court in its order.
The High Court Bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order on Sunday after hearing a writ petition filed by seven depositors of the company for winding up the company. The order was released on Tuesday.
Barrister ASM Shahriar Kabir, a lawyer of the petitioners, said that seven petitioners deposited about Tk 85 million in the company as fixed deposits and after maturity the petitioners made applications for encashment of the fixed deposits. Then the company informed the depositors that they are unable to pay the petitioners’ money.
In this circumstance, the depositors filed the petition with the High Court in December, 2019 for winding up the company.
