Court Correspondent :
The Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka yesterday (Sunday) accepted the charges against former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and 10 others in the case filed on the charges of embezzling and laundering Tk 40 million.
Accepting the charges, Judge KM Imrul Kayesh of the court issued warrant against the accused as they had been shown fugitives in the charge sheet on Monday.
The court also directed police to submit the execution report by January 22. The other accused in the case are former Farmers Bank’s (Now Padma Bank) Managing Director AKM Shameem, former Head of Credit Division Gazi Salahuddin, First Vice-President of Credit Division Swapon Kumar Roy, Senior Vice-President Ziauddin Ahmed, First Vice- President Safiuddin Askari, Vice-President Md Lutful Haque, Md Shahjahan of Tangail’s Sreehoripur village, Ranajit Chandra Saha of the district’s Jodunathpur village, his wife Santri Roy and nephew Niranjan Chandra Saha. Farmers Bank was later renamed Padma Bank.
On December 10, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) pressed charges against the 11 accused. The ACC in October last year said that it found evidence of fraud involving transaction of Tk 40 million borrowed with fake documents by two businessmen- namely Shahjahan and Niranjan, from the bank. It also said that the money was deposited in SK Sinha’s account.
According to the case statement, Shahjahan and Niranjan opened two separate current accounts with the former Farmer Bank’s Gulshan Branch on November 6, 2016. The following day, each of them applied for loan for Tk 20 million from the bank.
The two used the same residential addresses in their bank documents. The ACC, during investigation, found that the house is owned by SK Sinha, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Shahjahan and Ranajit were reportedly known former CJ Sinha, the statement added.
Sk Sinha resigned on November 11, 2017, from abroad. He is now in the United States of America.
