Sikder Group MD Ron and brother Dipu cleared of attempted murder charges

A Dhaka court has acquitted Ron Haque Sikder, managing director of Sikder Group, and his brother Dipu Haque Sikder of charges of trying to kill two officials of Exim Bank.

Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury cleared them on Thursday after accepting the police’s final report, said Md Zafar Hossain, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Sub-Inspector Md Ripon Uddin of the police’s Detective Branch submitted the report, saying he did not find truth in the allegations against the Sikder brothers, according to Zafar.

Former army officer Serajul Islam, a director of Exim Bank and the plaintiff of the case, was present in court, but he did not object to the report.

He started the case against Ron and Dipu with Gulshan police on May 19, saying they had abducted the bank’s Managing Director Mohammed Haider Ali Miah and Additional Managing Director Mohammad Feroz Hossain, and their two chauffeurs.

The charges also included firing a gun in an attempted murder and forcing Haider and Feroz into signing documents for loan.

Amid the first lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic and a ban on international flights, Ron and Dipu had left Bangladesh for Thailand by an air ambulance on May 25.      

The police seized a car belonging to Ron as part of the investigation.

Ron was arrested on return from abroad on Feb 12 this year after the death of his father and Sikder Group’s founding Chairman Zainul Haque Sikder. Ron was released on bail the next day.