#thenewscompany – A Dhaka court today handed down life imprisonment to a former official of Sonali Bank and two executives of the scandal-ridden Hallmark Group for embezzlement of Taka 2.22 crore from the state-run bank.
Judge Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Judge Court-5 pronounced the verdict after trying them in absentia as the convicts were on the run to evade justice. The convicts are: Saiful Hassan, former assistant general manager of Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Branch; Saiful Islam Raj, managing director of Paragon Knit Composite Ltd, a sister concern of Hall-Mark Group; and its director Abdullah Al Mamun.
This was first of the verdicts in 11 cases involving the scandal in which the trio along with several other suspects who are believed to have siphoned off crores of taka cheating the public bank. According to the prosecution, the officials of the Paragon Knit Composite Ltd in collusion with some bank officials took a loan of Taka 2,2278,610 from the Ruposhi Bangla branch of Sonali Bank for importing machineries for the company in 2012.
The court found them guilty of misappropriating the entire amount instead of importing the machineries. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on May 28 in 2013 filed a case with Ramna Police Station, accusing them of misappropriating the money. After investigations the statutory anti-graft watchdog pressed charges against the accused on June 11 in 2014 and after days of hearing the court indicted them on November 17 the same year.