Arrest warrant out for Premier Bank Chairman HBM Iqbal

A Dhaka court has issued arrest warrants for Premier Bank Chairman HBM Iqbal and two others in a Tk 2 billion defamation suit.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sadbir Yasir passed the order on Sunday.

Aminur Rahman, owner of a spinning mill, started the case in February. He owns Panna Spinning Mills Limited at Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.

The accused persons had tried to evade trial despite repeated summons by the court, said plaintiff’s lawyer Omar Faruq.

The two other accused are the bank's Managing Director Khondoker Fazle Rashid and Additional Managing Director Abu Hanif Khan.

Premier Bank extracted penalty interest, monitoring fee and ‘other fabricated charges’ from Panna Spinning Mills Ltd at rates higher than shown in its official chart, according to the case dossier.

The act was done as part of a conspiracy plotted by a competitor of Panna Spinning Mills, it said.

Although the plaintiff cleared the fees, the bank moved ACC with false allegations defaming the plaintiff as well as the guarantor Makbul Hossain, a former MP.

The bank published a circular to put the property of the plaintiff on auction when a case over the loan process was pending with the High Court, claims the plaintiff.

HBM Iqbal had once served as a lawmaker of the ruling Awami League.