Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has arrested four top bankers including three Islami Bank officials for their alleged involvement in smearing negative campaign regarding Bangladesh's economy and banking sector. 

The four bankers have been shown arrested in Digital Security Act case filed with the Gulshan Police Station by an official of S Alam Group—which owns the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited. 

Monirul Islam, additional deputy commissioner of Detective Branch's Cyber & Special Crime unit confirmed the matter to The Business Standard. 

According to the DB, the arrestees are Islami Bank's executive vice-presidents Sayeed Ullah and Shahidullah Majumder, Habibur Rahman, an official of the bank's security department, and Mosharraf Hossain, a former deputy managing director of Islami Bank who is now working at Social Islami Bank as the chief remittance officer.

While speaking to reporters, DB chief Harun-or-Rashid on Thursday said that the four bankers were arrested from different areas in the capital on Wednesday.

The arrestees have been spreading false information about Islami Bank, he claimed. 

"Islami Bank is a reputed bank. Few individuals have been attempting to destabilise the country's financial sector by spreading false information about banks and financial institutions through social media and other means," the DB chief added.

Harun-or-Rashid also said that the arrestees are associated with Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir. 

Earlier, on 9 Januray the DB official in a brief said that Jamaat-Shibir men are spreading rumours about the Islami Bank and S Alam Group through various media to embarrass the government. The same agency said that they had arrested five people for spreading rumours about the Islami Bank and the S Alam Group.

They are Mohammad Noor Un Nabi, Afsar Uddin Roman, Abu Said Saju, Md Swadhin Mia and Md Abdus Salam. They were arrested by the cybercrime department (north) of the detective branch after conducting raids in different areas of the capital on 8 January.

Islami Bank recently came to scrutiny after the disclosure of information that the Chattogram-based S Alam Group has lifted a stupendous sum of money in loans – more than Tk30,000 crore – from the bank that the business group controls.

The amount was way beyond the group's entitlement, prompting the Bangladesh Bank to appoint observers at the bank.