Files petition with HC; sues 4 newspapers for Tk 5,000cr compensation
Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd yesterday filed a writ petition with the High Court, challenging the Bangladesh Bank report that said the company had been doing illegal banking.
Md Rafiqul Amin, chairman of the cooperative and also Destiny Group, lodged the petition, seeking a stay order on the report and also a rule upon the government and the BB to explain the legality of the report.
In the petition, he stated that the BB’s report was faulty and illegal since the BB had not followed due procedures while inspecting his company.
The central bank has to give an opportunity to the organisation under question to place its argument and defend itself under the Bank Companies Act, 1991, Rafiqul Amin said, adding that the BB officials did not follow this rule while probing his company.
His counsel Mizan Sayeed told reporters the hearing of the petition might be held today.
The BB report revealed last month said the cooperative, a concern Destiny Group, has seen an astronomic rise in its capital, shareholders, profit and investment since 2009.
Following the report, which was sent to the finance ministry last month, various newspapers ran reports on numerous irregularities of the company.
Meanwhile, a Dhaka Court yesterday summoned the editors and publishers of four Bangla dailies, including Prothom Alo, to appear before it on June 10 to explain their roles in connection with a defamation case filed by Destiny-2000 Ltd.
The order came hours after Rafiqul Amin filed the case with the Fourth Joint District Judges’ Court of Dhaka against the editors, publishers and reporters concerned of four newspapers, claiming Tk 5,000 crore in compensation for “damaging” his organisation’s reputation by publishing reports.
He said the defendants had earlier published news items under different headlines on different dates in their dailies which are false, fabricated and defamatory. They had published the stories just to damage the company’s image and reputation socially and economically.
The defendants are Prothom Alo Editor and Publisher Matiur Rahman, its reporter Fakhrul Islam and the daily’s printing company Transcraft Ltd, Naya Diganta Editor Alamgir Mohiuddin, its Publisher Shamsul Huda, reporter Syed Shamsuzzaman Nipu and Diganta Printers’ Ltd, Jugantor Editor and Publisher Salma Islam, its Executive Editor Saiful Alam, its reporter Golam Maula and Jamuna Printers’ Ltd and Jai Jai Din Editorial Board President and Publisher Syed Hossain Chowdhury and its acting editor Kazi Rukunuddin Ahmed.
According to the BB report, Destiny cooperative’s paid-up capital has increased to nearly Tk 300 crore in 2009-10 from Tk 5.53 crore a year ago. The figure jumped to nearly Tk 1,200 crore in 2010-11.
The central bank probed the activities of Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd (DMCSL) on instructions from the finance ministry.
In the last 10 months alone, the cooperative bought all or most of the shares of 29 companies at over Tk 356.64 crore, according to a document of the Department of Cooperatives under which DMCSL is registered.
Currently, DMCSL has 6.5 lakh members with about Tk 3,000 crore in assets.
-With The Daily Star input
