BASIC Bank scam: ACC to file plea challenging ex-DMD's bail

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will file six appeals with the Supreme Court challenging the High Court verdict that granted bail to Fazlus Sobhan, former deputy managing director of BASIC Bank, in six loan-scam cases.

"The commission (ACC) will submit six separate leave-to-appeal petitions to the Supreme Court on June 21 seeking cancellation of the High Court order that granted bail to Fazlus Sobhan in BASIC Bank's loan-scam cases," ACC's lawyer Advocate Syed Mamun Mahbub told The Daily Star today.

He said the leave-to-appeal petitions will be filed on the grounds that Fazlus Sobhan has committed financial offence in dealing with the loan of BASIC Bank and he is one of the main accused in the cases.

Advocate Mamun Mahbub also said in the [leave-to-appeal] petitions, the ACC will not challenge the HC observations over the long delay in the investigation into the cases filed over the loan scam of BASIC Bank.

He added that the ACC will carry out the HC directives and observations over the investigations into the cases.

On May 31, the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim granted permanent bail to Fazlus Sobhan in six cases filed by the ACC over the loan scam of BASIC Bank.

The bench granted him bail following his six separate bail petitions on grounds that the ACC failed to complete the investigations of the cases within two and half years after their filings.

However, the HC said his bail will be cancelled at any stage of the case if he misuses the privilege of bail in any manner in accordance with the law.

Fazlus Sobhan, who is accused in 48 cases and in jail since 2016, could not get released from jail following the HC orders of bail as he is arrested in 11 other cases, his lawyer Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud told The Daily Star on May 31.

In the full verdict, the HC observed that there is no tangible progress in the investigation into the cases filed over the loan scam of BASIC Bank in the last two and a half years although it repeatedly directed the ACC to carry out a fair probe.

In a verdict, the HC also said the anti-graft body has utterly failed to comply with the observations made by the country's highest court, which is tantamount to demeaning and flouting its orders.

Once a healthy state bank, BASIC has been destroyed as around Tk 4,500 crore was siphoned out form it between 2009 and 2013. It triggered a huge outcry when a Bangladesh Bank enquiry disclosed the loan scam.

The ACC filed as many as 56 cases two and a half years ago over the loan scam. However, it did not sue former BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and members of the board, drawing huge criticism for its selective actions.