Dhaka, Dec 27 (bdnews24.com) – A special judge's court Thursday sentenced Orion Group chairman Obaidul Karim to life imprisonment for misappropriating Tk 6.7 crore from the Oriental Bank.
Judge Firoz Alam of Special Judge's Court-1 delivered the verdict, which also fined Obaidul Tk 6.7 crore or two more years in jail on failure to pay.
Another four accused in the case – two former vice presidents of Oriental Bank, Shah Md Harun and AQM Mahmud Ullah, and two former assistant vice presidents, Md Fazlur Rahman and AKM Neyamatullah – were each awarded three years in jail, and fined Tk 50,000 or a further three months in jail on failure to pay.
Oriental Bank executive Rakibul Islam, the sixth accused, received one year in jail and must pay Tk 10,000 or serve another month.
Rakibul Islam surrendered to court on Oct 23 while the other five accused are on the run.
The court also ordered the government to confiscate the bank's guarantee in the name of Obaidul for the construction of the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover.
The Anticorruption Commission filed the case on Feb 1 with Motijheel Police Station.
It was alleged that Obaidul, one of the bank's sponsors, misappropriated the money with the assistance of bank officials.
Obaidul was accused of opening a fake account at Oriental's principal branch with the help of his co-accused.
The case file said a current account was opened at Oriental's principal branch in Motijheel in the name of 'Bellal Hossain' on June 26, 2005, with a deposit of Tk 75,000. Harun approved the account.
An investigation later proved the account to be a dummy. No person named Bellal Hossain was found at the address mentioned in the account details. The holding number did not exist either, according to the investigation.
The Anticorruption Commission pressed charges against six people, including Obaidul, on Aug 27.
According to the charge sheet Oriental's Islampur branch credited the fake account with Tk 6.7 crore on Aug 21 through an illegal inter-branch debit transaction.
Charges were framed against the six on Oct 31. Twelve people testified in the case.
The charges came approximately seven months after the government imposed freezes on the troubled bank.
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