A Dhaka court has framed charges against 11 accused, including former chief justice SK Sinha, in a graft case involving Tk4 crore loan embezzlement from Farmers Bank Ltd (now Padma Bank Ltd).
Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam framed the charges on Thursday, fixing August 18 as the date to begin the trial of the case.
Earlier on Wednesday (August 12), after the resumption of regular operations of the High Court Division, the court fixed August 13 for hearing on framing charges against the 11 in the money laundering case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The other accused in the case are Gazi Salahuddin, senior executive vice president and former head of credit division, Swapan Kumar Roy, first vice president (Credit division), Shafiuddin Askari Ahmed and Md Lutful Haque, first vice presidents of the Gulshan Corporate Branch of the Farmers Bank, M Mahbubul Haque Chisti, entrepreneur director and chairman of Audit Committee of the Farmers Bank, and Mohammad Shahjahan, Niranjan Chandra Saha, Santri Roy Simi and Ranjit Chandra Saha.
On July 10, 2019, the ACC filed the case on a charge of misappropriating and laundering about Tk 4 crore from Farmers Bank in 2016.
Sinha went on leave on October 2, 2017, and left for Australia on October 13 amid a dispute over some of his observations over the 16th Amendment verdict.
A day after Sinha’s departure to Australia, the Supreme Court issued a statement saying he was facing 11 charges, including graft, moral turpitude and money laundering.
On November 11, 2017, Sinha resigned from his post of chief justice.
nh/dn/teb
