HC orders BRAC Bank to pay Tk 1.5m to Jahalom over loan fraud debacle

The High Court has ordered BRAC Bank to pay Tk 1.5 million in compensation to Jahalom, a jute-mill worker who was wrongly put behind bars for three years in a loan fraud case.

The virtual bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader issued the order on Wednesday.

BRAC Bank has been directed to pay the full amount to Jahalom within a month and send a receipt confirming the payment to the Supreme Court Registrar General's Office.

Jahalom was released from jail on the High Court's orders in February 2019 following a media storm over his imprisonment on wrongful charges of loan fraud.

The Anti-Corruption Commission in 2014 prosecuted one Abu Saleque in 33 cases on charges related to loan fraud involving around Tk 185 million in Sonali Bank.

The anti-graft agency had issued a summons for Saleque but the order went to one ‘Jahalom’ from Tangail instead.

Jahalom then went to the ACC and asserted that he was not Saleque.

The photo used to open the Sonali Bank account was not his either, he had told the ACC.

Two officials of the bank, however, identified Jahalom as Saleque and the jute-mill worker was arrested in Ghorashal in 2016.

The court has now ordered BRAC Bank to compensate Jahalom, a victim of mistaken identity.

Of the Tk 185 million swindled through the embezzlement scheme, one of the loans was taken out from Sonali Bank. But the bank was let off without any fine as the court did not find any fault on its part.

The High Court also warned the ACC not to repeat such an incident in future. It also ordered the authorities to investigate all 33 cases in which Jahalom was wrongly charged and complete the trial proceedings in time.