Would have given capital punishment if law permitted, says judge after Hall-Mark verdict

The court sentences them to life in prison for embezzling Tk 100 million in one of 11 cases against them

The judge who delivered the verdict in the Hall-Mark Group loan scam case observed Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud and his wife, Chair Jasmine Islam, deserved capital punishment.

After the verdict on Tuesday, Judge Md Abul Kashem of the Dhaka First Special Judge’s Court said he handed down life sentences to the couple and seven others because there is no legal provision for death sentence.

They were convicted of embezzling Tk 100 million in loans. The court also sentenced eight other suspects to different prison sentences in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

In the observation of the 284-page judgement, the judge said: “The way they scammed the banking sector and toyed with the country’s economy and its people, the court believes that they should have been given the death penalty.”

Bu the maximum punishment in the law relevant to the charges is life sentence, he said.

In 2012, as many as 11 cases were filed against the Hall-Mark Group owners, executives, and officials of Sonali Bank who were involved in the embezzlement of Tk 40 billion. This case is one of the 11 cases filed against them.

Verdicts had previously been delivered over the Hall-Mark loan scam in several cases, but neither Tanvir nor Jasmine were accused in those cases.

In the verdict announced on Tuesday, Tanvir and Jasmine were also fined Tk 50 million under Section 409 of the Penal Code and sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment and a fine of Tke 25,000 under Section 420.

The ACC filed the case in 2012 in the capital’s Ramna Police Station, alleging the accused had embezzled Tk 105 million from a loan of Tk 5.26 billion taken for a non-existent company.