Embezzling Tk2,265cr: ACC submits chargesheet against ex-BASIC Bank chair, 146 others
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Monday submitted the chargesheets to the court against former chairman of BASIC Bank Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu and 146 others in 59 cases filed about eight years ago over the embezzlement of Tk2,265 crore through loan scams.
Of the 147 accused, 101 are customers and 46 are officials of the BASIC Bank, said ACC Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain in a press briefing held at the ACC office in the capital.
Mahbub Hossain said five ACC officials investigated the cases and filed the probe reports to the commission, which approved the chargesheets in all the cases after scrutinising the reports.
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ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Business Standard that these cases are under trial in a Dhaka special judge's court. After taking the chargesheets into cognisance, the court will frame charges against the accused in the cases and start the formal trial.
According to a Bangladesh Bank report, around Tk4,500 crore was embezzled from BASIC Bank between 2009 and 2013 through loan scams when Abdul Hye Bachchu was the chairman of the bank.
The central bank's investigation report of the Tk4,500 crore embezzlement was sent to the ACC from the Bangladesh Bank in 2013. After a long inquiry, on 21-23 September 2015, the ACC filed 56 cases against 120 people at Motijheel, Paltan and Gulshan police stations. Allegations of Tk2,037.85 crore of embezzlement were made in the cases.
Later, three other cases were filed between 2019 and 2020 against 156 people, including the former chairman of the bank Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu.
In August 2017, the Appellate Division headed by the chief justice summoned the documents of the BASIC Bank loan scam cases which were then under investigation by the ACC. At that time, the ACC was ordered to complete the investigation quickly.
On 21 January 2021, the High Court expressed frustration over the non-submission of chargesheets in 56 cases filed in connection with the BASIC Bank loan scam. The court directed the ACC to submit a full progress report of the cases within a month.
This was not the first time the High Court had come down hard over the delay in submitting chargesheets.
In November of 2022, during the hearing of three bail petitions filed by Mohammad Ali, former general manager of BASIC Bank's Shantinagar branch, in corruption cases filed by the graft watchdog, the High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat Lizu observed: "Crores of taka has been embezzled but no work is being done by the Anti-Corruption Commission. Why are they [ACC] silent? This is just like a drama. We are watching the drama. This is not acceptable."
