Court asks to publish newspaper ad asking SK Sinha to appear on Feb 20

A Dhaka court today directed the authorities concerned to publish advertisement in two national dailies asking former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and 10 others to appear before it on February 20 in connection with a graft case.

After getting reports on execution of arrest warrant, Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka passed the order.

Earlier on January 5, the same court issued arrest warrants against all the accused as they have been shown “fugitives” in the charge-sheets.

The court also took cognisance of the charges against them in the case filed for allegedly misappropriating and laundering about Tk 4 crore from the Farmers Bank in 2016.

The other accused are: the bank’s former managing director AKM Shamim, Senior Executive Vice-President and former head of Credit Division Gazi Salahuddin, First Vice-President of Credit Division Swapan Kumar Roy, First Vice-President Shafiuddin Askary, former chairman of the bank’s audit committee Mahbubul Haque Chisty and Vice-President Lutful Haque.

One Shahjahan of Tangail’s Sreehoripur village, Ranjit Chandra Saha of the district’s Jodunathpur village, Sinha’s wife Santri Roy and nephew Niranjan Chandra Saha were also made accused.

The Anti-Corruption Corruption in October last year said it found evidence of fraud involving transactions of Tk 4 crore borrowed with fake documents by two businessmen, Shahjahan and Niranjan, from the bank. It said the money was deposited in Justice Sinha’s account.

Later on July 10, the ACC filed a case against Sinha and 10 others for their alleged involvement with misappropriating and laundering the money.