Verdict in fraud charges against Sylhet industrialist Ragib Ali on Thursday

A Sylhet court will give its decision on Thursday over fraud charges against industrialist Ragib Ali.

Ali and his son stand accused of forging land ministry documents to grab temporality of a tea estate worth millions.

The court of Sylhet's Chief Judicial Magistrate concluded the trial on Wednesday after hearing the closing statements and kept its verdict pending for the next day.

The 78-year-old businessman is the vice-chairman of the Southeast Bank.

An annual publication, British Bangladeshi Who's Who, describes North South University Trust’s Founder Life Member Ragib as a philanthropist.

The UK-Bangladeshi businessman is also associated with bank, stock-broking, insurance companies, and many other business houses, the publication says.

According to the publication, he is also the managing director of Kohinoor Industries Ltd and has served as chairman of Southeast Bank Limited.

Ragib and his family fled to India hours after a court issued arrest warrant for him and his son Hye in the case, but he was brought back late last year.

Sylhet's Additional Public Prosecutor Mahfuzur Rahman said the court finished recording witnesses' testimonies on Dec 14 following counsels cross-examining them.

"After closing statements of the prosecution and defence ended on Wednesday, the judge fixed Thursday for the verdict," he told bdnews24.com.

According to case details, a Hindu man donated the tea estate and all other properties to Sri Sri Radha Krishna Jeu in 1915.

One Pankaj Kumar Gupta became the 'Sebayet' (superviser) of the estate in 1971 and later left for India, making Majid the Sebayet of the temporality.

Questions were raised over a Muslim becoming a Sebayet of a Hindu temporality. An investigation was launched later.

The investigator found that Majid had forged a land ministry official’s signature to lease the estate to Ragib's son Hye for 99 years.

Ragib sold the estate dividing it into 337 plots.