A Dhaka court today sentenced a former official of Sonali Bank and two officials of Hall-Mark Group to life in jail for misappropriating Tk 2.22crore.

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.

Judge Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Judge Court -5 handed down the sentence in absence of the convicts.

The court also fined them Tk 2.22 crore each in default of which they will suffer seven years more in jail.

The court acquitted another accused AKM Azizur Rahman from the charges as he died earlier.

The punishment of the fugitives will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender, the judge said.

According to the prosecution, it was alleged that the officials of the Paragon Knit Composite Ltd in collusion with some bank officials took a loan of Tk 2, 22, 78 623 from the bank for importing machineries for the company in 2012. But the accused misappropriated all the money without importing the machineries.

Later on May 28 in 2013, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed a case with Ramna Police Station, accusing them of misappropriating the money.

The ACC pressed charges against the trio on June 11 in 2014 and the court framed charges against them on November 17 the same year.