Supreme Court orders Bashundhara Group chief to surrender in tax evasion case

The Supreme Court has ordered the Bashundhara Group chairman and five others to surrender and allowed the state to appeal against a High Court order acquitting them in a tax evasion case.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 Feb 2015, 01:00 PM
Updated : 3 Feb 2015, 01:31 PM

A four-string Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the orders on Tuesday.

Along with Bashundhara boss Ahmed Akbar Sobhan alias Shah Alam, his wife Afroza Begum, sons Sadat Sobhan, Safayet Sobhan, Sayem Sobhan, and auditor Kuddus and Company were sentenced to jail in the case by a special judge’s court in 2007.

The prosecution moved the Supreme Court when the High Court acquitted them.

"We have been permitted to appeal against these six people along with the company," state lawyer Mohammad Mamtaz Uddin Fakir said.

"The Appellate Division has ordered the convicted people to surrender to the trial court within three weeks," he added.

Barristers Rokan Uddin Mahmud and Ahsanul Karim stood for the defendants.

Karim said the defendants would be able to seek bail after surrendering to the lower court.

The National Board of Revenue’s Deputy Tax Commissioner Kabir Uddin Molla filed the case in the court of a special judge on Jul 25, 2007.

According to the case details, Bashundhara Industrial Complex Limited declared no income in three tax years but while taking loan from Sonali Bank, it showed an income of over Tk 220 million during that period.

Auditor Kuddus and Company provided the contradictory information.

The court in the same year jailed Bashundhara Industrial Complex Limited for three and five years under two Sections. The verdict said the jail term would continue simultaneously.

As a company cannot be jailed, its Chairman Sobhan, Managing Director Sayem and directors Afroza, Sadat and Safayet would have to serve the jail term, the verdict had said.

They were also fined Tk 803 million. They would have to serve an additional one-year jail term if the fines were not paid, according to the verdict.

The Kuddus and Company owner was given the same punishment for furnishing contradictory information.

The court had also ordered confiscation of the earnings of Bashundhara Industrial Complex Limited in those three tax years.

Sobhan, however, appealed to the High Court against the verdict in 2011. The High Court acquitted all those accused in the case the same year.

The state then filed two appeal petitions against the High Court verdict.