Home
+
Published : 28 Jan 2026, 05:08 PM
A Dhaka court has indicted 13 people, including S Alam Group Chairman Mohammad Saiful Alam and former managing director of Reliance Finance Limited (now Aviva Finance Limited) Prashanta Kumar (PK) Halder, in a case over the alleged embezzlement of Tk 240 million.
Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-8 Judge Nure Alam Bhuiyan framed charges against the accused on Wednesday.
The recording of testimony will begin on Mar 1, the court’s bench assistant Fazlur Rahman confirmed.
Only two of the suspects are currently in jail. The rest are absconding.
The two in custody -- Nahida Runai and Rashedul Haque -- were present during the hearing of the case.
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) prosecutor Delwar Jahan Rumi argued for the framing of charges against the suspects.
Two defence lawyers argued for them to be relieved of the charges. But the court decided to frame charges.
On Aug 8, 2013, the suspects allegedly approved and disbursed a fixed-term loan of Tk 240 million in the name of an entity called AM Trading.
The money was subsequently transferred to S Alam Super Edible Oil Limited, according to the case statement.
Md Ismail, an assistant director at ACC, filed a case over the matter on Jul 2 last year. The chargesheet in the case was submitted against 13 people on Oct 16.
Trials in two other cases against S Alam and PK Halder began on Monday and Tuesday.
Government agencies have launched investigations into allegations against S Alam, the chairman of the Chattogram-based industrial conglomerate, including irregularities in the banking sector, money laundering, and tax evasion.
S Alam is also under investigation by the ACC over allegations of amassing wealth illegally.
He has been accused of syphoning off large sums of money from banks, including the Islami Bank of Bangladesh, by obtaining loans through irregularities and fraud using shell and front companies and then laundering the funds abroad.
Reports emerged in early 2020 that PK Halder had fled abroad after “embezzling” tens of billions of taka by setting up multiple financial institutions, including People’s Leasing, under real and fictitious names.
The ACC launched investigations and filed 34 cases against PK Halder and his associates. In May 2022, news broke that he had been arrested in India’s West Bengal.
On Oct 8 the following year, he was sentenced to 22 years in prison in the first case.
