Basic Bank loan scam cases
ACC charge sheets soon
Muhammad Yeasin
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is soon going to submit the much-awaited charge-sheets in some cases filed in connection with the Basic Bank loan scam.
According to ACC sources, most of the documents relating to the investigations have already been collected by the investigators. Investigations into some of the cases are nearing completion, and the investigators may able to submit the charge-sheets in those cases within a month or two, the sources added.
Talking to this correspondent, ACC lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said that the commission was spurred by the High Courts expression of disappointment over the slow progress in the investigation into the Basic Bank scam.
The investigators and the commission officials have taken very seriously the High Courts observations over the slow progress of the investigation process. The ACC will submit the investigation reports of some cases in connection with the Basic Bank loan scam soon, Khan said.
Some ACC officials dealing with the Basic Bank loan scam cases told this correspondent on the condition of anonymity that they would try to submit the investigation reports of some cases within a month or two.
We will inform the high officials of the commission including chairman Iqbal Mahmood about the High Courts observations. After holding discussions with the officials concerned, we will take the final decision about the submission of the charge sheets of the cases, they said.
They also said that they had collected the relevant documents related to scam from the Bangladesh Bank and other places. After scrutinizing them and taking approval from the chairman, we will submit the investigation reports, which would take a month or two to complete the entire process of submitting the charge sheets.
A High Court bench had on May 30 had expressed utmost dissatisfaction and disappointment over the ACCs long delay in completing the investigations into the loan scams.
We have to cover our faces with black cloth in shame ... The commission could not submit charge sheet to the trial court in any of the 56 cases filed two and a half years back over the Basic Bank loan scams, the HC bench of Justice Enayetur and Justice Shahidul Karim had remarked in the presence of the ACC investigating officers.
The officers, led by ACC director Iqbal Hossain, had appeared before the court, as per its earlier directive.
Earlier, on May 23, the same HC bench had summoned the eight investigating officers of the 56 Basic Bank loan scam cases to appear before it on May 30 to explain their positions on the delay in completing the investigations.
As per Section 20A of the ACC law, an investigator has to complete a probe into a corruption case within 180 days. But the ACC has failed to complete investigations into the loan scam cases in three years, in spite of repeated directives and observations from both the High Court Division and the Appellate Division.
According to a Bangladesh Bank (BB) enquiry, about Tk. 4,500 crore was siphoned off the state-run bank between 2010 and 2013 when Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu chaired its board.
On July 14, 2014, the central bank sent a report on the scam to the ACC, detailing how people had embezzled money from the bank through shell companies and dubious accounts. The BB found that Bacchu had illegally influenced the activities of the bank, leaving the once-sound institution in a moribund state.
The ACC filed 56 cases with three police stations in the capital accusing more than 100 individuals, including 26 bank officials, in September 2015, while the commission filed another five cases last year.
