Former minister and BNP leader Morshed Khan has secured anticipatory bail from the High Court in a graft case that involves the embezzlement of Tk 3.5 billion in loans.
The Anti-Corruption Commission or ACC started the case over loans taken from eight banks and financial institutions for Citycell, now shuttered by telecom regulator BTRC.
The ACC accused 16 people, including Khan’s wife Nasrin, Citycell CEO Mehboob Chowdhury and AB Bank’s Managing Director Moshiur Rahman Chowdhury, in the case filed with Dhaka’s Banani police on Jun 28.
On Tuesday, a High Court bench granted Khan, the chairman of Pacific Bangladesh Telecom, his wife (a director), and 11 others four-week bail after hearing their petitions.
Pacific Bangladesh Telecom uses Citycell as its brand name.
The court granted four-week anticipatory bail to 13 people after hearing three separate petitions, which means they have to surrender to trial court after the bail expires, ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told reporters after the hearing.
The loans were disbursed between 2011 and 2015 for ‘dishonest purposes for financial benefit through fraud, corruption and misuse of power’, according to the case dossier. AB Bank officials helped Pacific Telecom officials embezzle the money, it said.
With AB Bank working as its guarantor, Pacific Telecom then took Tk 1 billion from Dhaka Bank, Tk 500 million from IFIC Bank, Tk 380 million from The City Bank, Tk 500 million from NCC Bank, Tk 100 million from Bangladesh Commerce Bank, Tk 300 from Pubali Bank, Tk 230 million from SABINCO and Tk 470 million from Phoenix Limited.
AB Bank later had to repay the banks Tk 3.485 billion including the interest as Pacific Telecom failed to meet the payment deadline.
The ACC says the embezzlement took place between 2011 and 2015, after Pacific Telecom applied for collateral-free loans at AB Bank’s Mohakhali branch.
Bangladesh’s first mobile phone operator Citycell was closed last year for its failure to pay up Tk 4.77 billion in government dues.