3 Sonali, Hall-Mark officials get life

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced a former official of Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla hotel branch and two officials of Hall-Mark Group to life in a case filed for misappropriating Tk 2.22 crore.

They are Saiful Hassan, former assistant general manager of the 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 of Dhaka passed the order in absence of the convicts.

The court also fined the three Tk 74 lakh each. In case of failure to comply with the order, they will have to suffer seven years more in jail.

It acquitted another accused AKM Azizur Rahman of the charge as he died earlier.

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

According to the case statement, 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 embezzled all the money without importing the machineries.

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

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