A Dhaka court on Thursday issued arrest warrants against Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu, former chairman of BASIC Bank and four of his family members in a case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission over embezzlement and money laundering of around Tk 95 crore.
Judge Mohammed Ash-Shams Joglul Hossain of the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka passed the order after taking the charge sheet into cognizance.
The judge directed the Officer-in-Charge of Banani Police Station to submit by November 4 the reports on execution of the arrest warrants issued against them.
Another accused, Amin Ahmad, owner of Le Meridien Dhaka, is now on bail in the same case.
Amin was sent to jail on July 10 upon his surrender in the case while Bacchu and all his family members are on the run.
On May 27, ACC Assistant Director Mohammad Neyamul Ahsan Gazi, also the Investigation Officer of the case, submitted chargesheet against Bacchu, his wife Shirin Aktar and four others, includes Amin Ahmad, in the case.
ACC Deputy Director Mohammad Nurul Huda filed the case with its integrated district office of Dhaka-1 on October 2 last year.
According to the case statement, Bacchu bought a 30.25 katha land for Tk 110 crore from Amin Ahmad, but two deeds showed the property value to be Tk 15.25 crore. Amin allegedly assisted in ensuring that the land price was shown lower than the market price.
Bacchu later transferred the land to his wife Shirin and sons Rafa an Anik.
Bacchu tried to hide his illegal income while also understated the value of the land at Tk 94.75 crore in the registration, depriving the government of over Tk 8.52 crore in revenue, according to the case statement.
On June 12 last year, the ACC submitted charge sheets against Bacchu and 146 others in connection with 59 cases filed over embezzlement of Tk 2,265 crore.
The commission, however, did not implicate the then-board members, who were at the helm of the bank when the massive embezzlement took place between 2009 and 2013.
Between 2009 and 2013, Tk 4,500 crore was swindled out of BASIC, once a healthy public bank. Of the sum, more than 95 per cent was sanctioned by the board.
In 2015, the ACC filed 56 cases in connection with the scam, but curiously neither Bacchu nor any of the board members were named as accused although multiple probes indicated their involvement. Later, four cases were filed.
