Ex-DGM of defunct Oriental Bank sent to jail

A Dhaka court yesterday sent former deputy general manager of now defunct Oriental Bank Imamul Haque to jail in connection with a case filed for embezzling Tk 1.7 crore from the bank.

Judge Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Judge's Court-5 gave the order after he surrendered before it in the case filed by the then Bureau of Anti-Corruption on December 29, 2006.

On August 25 this year, the court sentenced seven people, including Imamul, to life imprisonment and fined them about Tk 1.08 crore for embezzling the money.

Other convicts are former Senior Vice-President of the bank Shah Mohammad Harun, Senior Assistant Vice-President Abul Kashem Mahmudullah, Assistant Vice-President Fazlur Rahman, Executive Officer and Vice-President Torikul Alam, Senior Executive Vice-President Mahmud Hossain and Executive Vice-President Qamrul Islam.

They are now on the run, court sources said. According to the case statement, Qamrul introducing himself as the owner of M/s Tanveer Agency opened an account with the bank's head office branch on July 27, 2005.

On the same day, he applied for a loan of Tk 1 crore which he withdrew soon after it was granted on that very day. The private bank was hit by scams in 2005-06. In 2006, Bangladesh Bank took over it and appointed an administrator. Later, the bank was sold to a Malaysia-based business group and renamed ICB Islamic Bank in 2009.