The Appellate Division stayed the High Court verdict upholding the bail of Rashedul Haque Chisty for four weeks in a money laundering case on Monday. He is the son of the former chairman of Farmers Bank Audit Committee Mahbubul Haque Chisty.
The apex court also asked the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to file a leave to appeal petition against the HC verdict within four weeks.
A three-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by the Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order today after hearing a petition filed by the ACC.
Earlier, ACC filed a petition seeking a stay order on the HC judgement.
Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan appeared for the ACC while senior lawyer AF Hasan Arif represented Rashedul Haque Chisty.
ACC had filed a review petition before the High Court challenging the bail order of Chisty that was granted by a subordinate court on May 19, 2020. Advocate Shahriar Kabir said Chisty will have to remain behind the bars as the trial of another corruption case is underway against him.
In 2018, the ACC filed several cases against Chishty, the former chairman of the audit and EC committee of Farmers Bank and five cases against his son Rashedul Chisty who was the shareholder of the bank.
Farmers Bank was established in June 2013. Bangladesh Bank investigation found massive irregularities in the bank’s loan disbursement along with Tk 159 crore of default loans in 2017. On July 21, 2020, the ACC filed a case against six people including Mahbubul Haq Chisty.
Deputy Assistant Director of the ACC Shahjahan Meraz filed the case with Dhaka-1 Integrated District Office.
The five others accused are -- Managing Director of Bakshiganj Jute Spinners Ltd Md Rashedul Haque Chishty, Padma Bank’s suspended Executive Vice President Mohammad Jahangir Alam Majumder, Chairman of Al-Farooq Bags Ltd Chowdhury Al Farooq, Managing Director of Al-Farooq Bags Ltd Redwanul Kabir Chowdhury and the company’s Director Kabir Chowdhury.
According to ACC, the accused in collusion with each other took 40.79 crore taka from Farmers Bank’s Motijheel Branch violating rules and embezzled the money. The amount of money stood at 62.96 crore taka along with interest accrued on December 31, 2019.
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