Banker steals Tk 34.5m from vault, ‘loses all of it to gambling’

Police have arrested an executive of the Premier Bank’s Rajshahi branch on charges of stealing Tk 34.5 million from its vault.

Shamsul Islam Faisal, a senior officer in charge of the vault’s cash, confessed to stealing the money in a statement given to court, police said.

Faisal claimed in the statement that he lost the money to online gambling, according to the law enforcers.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sadeqin Habib Bappy recorded Faisal’s statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to Boalia Police Station OC Nibaran Chandra Bhowmik.

Faisal initially admitted to “removing the money and lending it to friends” when officials found Tk 34.5 million missing while counting the cash in the vault on Jan 23.

They handed him to police as he failed to bring the money back later that night.

Selim Reza Khan, a zonal manager of the bank, then started a case against Faisal accusing him of embezzling the money.

Police grilled him in custody for three days until Wednesday.

“He used to remove money from the rear rows in the vault and kept the accounts clean,” Golam Ruhul Quddus, an additional deputy commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, said, referring to information given by Faisal during the remand.

Faisal had initially said he bought a plot with a portion of the money and lent the rest to his friends, but later changed the story claiming he lost all the money to Bet365, an online gambling platform, according to Quddus.

The bank’s Deputy Managing Director Shah Alam, who is heading an investigation into the incident, said they were checking if someone else was involved in the embezzlement.