The Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday summoned 17 officials of Bangladesh Bank for interrogation in connection with the embezzlement of money through sanctioning loans of thousands of crores of taka from Islami Bank to S Alam Group and its associates.
ACC deputy director Md Yasir Arafat, also the inquiry officer of the allegation, sent a letter to the governor of the central bank asking the 17 officials to appear at the ACC headquarters in Dhaka to give their statement over the graft allegations.
According to the allegations, Golam Sarwar Chowdhury, owner of M/s Murad Enterprise and United Super Traders, customers of the Jubilee Road branch of Islami Bank, Century Food Products, a customer of the Khatungonj branch, and others embezzled money from the bank in the name of loans.
ACC asked Bangladesh Bank inspection department joint directors Sunirban Barua, Anik Talukder, Belal Hossain, additional director Salima Begum, deputy directors Khorshed Alam, Md Jubair Hossain, Rubel Chowdhury, Mohammad Ziauddin Bablu, and Debashis Biswas to appear before it on December 8.
It also asked BB director Md Sarwar Hossain, joint director Syed M Arifun-Nabi, additional directors Shankar Kanti Ghosh, Mohammad Anwar Hossain, Md Shoayeb Chowdhury, Md Abdur Rauf, Md Manjur Hossain Khan, and deputy director Lenin Azad Palash to appear before the commission on December 9.
ACC deputy director for public relations Aktarul Islam said that ACC summoned Belal Hossain, Mohammad Ziauddin Bablu, Debashis Biswas, and Khorshed Alam for the first time over the probe.
But the commission summoned the other 13 officials for the second time as they did not appear at the ACC on November 20 and 21, responding to the first summons of the commission, he said.
Among the 17 officials, Md Sarwar Hossain is the director at the Bangladesh Bank head office, and he was also an observer of the Islami Bank head office.
Palsah, Rauf, and Manjur are officials of the inspection team of BB head office, while the rest of the officials are officials of the inspection department at Bangladesh Bank鈥檚 Chattogram office.
