Sonali Loan Scam
Hall-Mark MD arrested after daylong drive
Tanvir Mahmud, managing director of Hall-Mark Group, and another top official of the controversial firm, were nabbed by the Rapid Action Battalion last night in the
capital’s Pallabi in connection with the Sonali Bank loan scam.
The other official is Tushar Ahmed, general manager (commercial), also husband of Tanvir’s sister-in-law.
“We arrested them around 9:30pm from a house at Section-6 of Mirpur,” Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, Rab’s intelligence wing director, told The Daily Star.
Tanvir was hiding in a flat owned by one Shamsuddin Doha, a relative of Tanvir, he said.
Rab’s media and legal wing Director Capt M Sohail said the force had also recovered a foreign pistol, four bullets and a magazine from Tanvir’s possession.
It could not be immediately confirmed whether the gun was licensed.
Rab said it would hand over the duo to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) authorities.
Tanvir dodged the law enforcers in the early hours yesterday when more than 100 personnel from Rab, police and the ACC conducted a three-hour drive in the company’s
factories in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital. The drive started at 2:00am.
Tanvir was arrested on a request from the ACC, which filed 11 cases on October 4 with Ramna Police Station against 27 officials of Hall-Mark and state-owned Sonali
Bank for misappropriating Tk 1,568 crore.
The cases were filed under the Money Laundering Prevention Act and the Corruption Prevention Act.
Of the accused, seven are Hall-Mark officials, including Tanvir, while the rest are Sonali Bank officials, including its former managing director Humayun Kabir.
Talking to The Daily Star about their failure in the first drive to arrest Tanvir, Lt Col Ziaul said the elite force had faced obstacles on the road near the factories
in Savar as two vehicles were left abandoned there.
“It delayed our operation and by then, Tanvir had fled through an alternative way.
“We found three women in Tanvir’s room and more than 30 others in another. We also saw a huge quantity of liquor there. But we neither arrested the women nor seized
anything as our first priority was to nab Tanvir,” he added.
He also expressed surprise over the security arrangements in and around the factories. There were several hundred private security personnel under the company “Hall-
Mark Patrol” in addition to 350 Ansar personnel.
According to an audit report, the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of Sonali Bank had disbursed Tk 3,606 crore in loan to Hall-Mark Group and five other companies defying
banking rules.
The Bangladesh Bank also revealed massive irregularities in the sanctioning and disbursing of loans, especially to the little-known Hall-Mark Group.
COURT ASKS ACC REPORTS
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday asked the investigation officers of the ACC to submit the probe reports of all the 11 cases by November 16.
Also yesterday, the High Court adjourned for two weeks the hearing on a writ petition that sought its directive on the government for recovering the loan.
Supreme Court lawyer Eunus Ali Akond filed the petition on September 17 with the HC, seeking its order on the authorities concerned to confiscate the assets of the
companies for their failure to refund the money.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
