HC summons IOs of all Basic Bank loan scam cases

The High Court today summoned all the investigation officers of 56 cases filed in connection with Basic Bank loan scam, seeking their explanation over the delay in completing the investigation.

They will have to appear before the court on Wednesday, next week, along with all the relevant documents of the cases.

The High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim passed the order while hearing four petitions filed by few accused including Fazlur Sobhan, the then managing director of Basic Bank, seeking bail in the cases.

“The Anti-Corruption commission has filed 56 cases in connection with the Basic Bank loan scam,” Anti-Corruption commission’s lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.

During the proceedings, the court found that the investigations of the cases were not finished in due time, the ACC lawyers said.

According to a Bangladesh Bank enquiry, about Tk 4,500 crore was siphoned out of 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 embezzled money from the bank through shell companies and dubious accounts.

The BB found that Bacchu illegally influenced all the activities of the bank, leaving the once-sound institution in a grave state.

In 2015, the ACC had filed the 56 cases over the scam. However, Bacchu was not made accused in any of the cases.