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Published : 03 Feb 2019, 06:00 PM
Jahalom, a worker of Bangladesh Jute Mills in Ghorashal, has been in jail for the last three years after being accused in 33 cases started by the Anti-Corruption Commission or ACC related to loan fraud of Sonali Bank.
The bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader ordered his freedom earlier on Sunday after days of hearings following a newspaper report on Jahalom.
The ACC in 2014 prosecuted one Abu Saleque in the 33 cases on charges related to loan fraud involving around Tk 185 million in Sonali Bank, according to the newspaper, Prothom Alo.
When the ACC sent for Saleque, the summons went to one ‘Jahalom’ from Tangail, the newspaper said.
Jahalom then went to the ACC and asserted that he was not Saleque, the report said.
The photo used to open the Sonali Bank account was not of Jahalom either, he had told the ACC, according to the report.
The officials of the bank, however, identified Jahalom as Saleque and the jute mill worker was eventually arrested in Ghorashal in 2016, the newspaper said.
On Jan 28 this year, the High Court issued a set of rules asking the authorities why ‘wrongly’ accused Jahalom will not be acquitted and why the court will not order his release.
It also summoned ACC Director Abdullah Al Jahid, who is the plaintiff of the related cases, a representative of the security services secretary, and a representative of the law secretary to explain why a wrongly accused man is in jail.
Following the summons, ACC Director General (investigation) Md Mustafizur Rahman, plaintiff Jahid, Sayed Belal Hossai, joint secretary to Public Security Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Sayed Mushfiqul Islam, the representative of law secretary, appeared before court on Sunday.
Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan represented the Anti-Corruption Commission in the court while lawyer Amit Das Gupta, who drew the court’s attention to the report, represented the state in the court.
The court is adjourned until Mar 6.
