2 former Uttara Bank officials jailed for life

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced four people including two former Uttara Bank Ltd officials to life in jail for misappropriating Tk 4.1 crore by submitting fake documents in 2002.

The convicts are: Khan Ahsan Ertazul Islam, former branch manager of Uttara Bank Ltd of Darus Salam branch, and Mizanur Rahman, its former foreign exchange in-charge; and Abdullah Al Mamun, chairman of M/S Apparels Sources Ltd, and its managing director Md Saiful Alam.

The court also fined the convicts Tk 1 crore each, in default to suffer seven more years in jail.

All the convicts have been absconding since the case was filed against them. Their conviction will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender.

Judge Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Judge Court-3 handed down the sentence in the absence of the convicts.

Earlier, the court recorded statements of eight prosecution witnesses including complainant of the case.

According to the prosecution, two businessmen in collusion with the bank officials took a loan of Tk 4,01,90,706 from Uttara Bank Ltd of Darus Salam branch by submitting fake documents sometime between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2002.

But the accused misappropriated all the money without investing it to the business.

Later, a case was filed against them with Mirpur Police Station on August 5, 2003.

After an investigation, the Anti-Corruption Commission pressed charges against them on December 5, 2012 and the court framed charges against them on April 9 in 2014.