A court here today (7 September) set 29 October to submit the investigation report in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and former chairman of Exim Bank Mohammad Nazrul Islam Mazumder for embezzlement of Taka 276.34 crore from banks’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds in the name of a trust named after her father.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Shahjahan Kabir set the date after accepting the first information report (FIR) in the case.
The ACC filed the case on 3 September at its Integrated District Office, Dhaka-1. The accused have been charged under sections 409 and 109 of the Penal Code, 1860 and section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.
According to the ACC inquiry, the trust was established through a registered deed on 6 September, 1994. Under the deed, Sheikh Hasina serves as the lifetime president of the trust, while Sheikh Rehana is to perform the duties of president in her absence.
The ACC alleged that a total of Taka 276,34,50,000 was collected for the trust from the CSR funds of 41 scheduled banks despite the absence of the necessary approvals from the Department of Social Services and the NGO Affairs Bureau.
The inquiry further alleged that then Bangladesh Association of Bankers (BAB) president Mohammad Nazrul Islam Mazumder placed the matter as “miscellaneous business” at an executive committee meeting even though it was not included in the meeting’s prescribed agenda.
Subsequently, decisions were taken at various executive committee meetings to provide funds from the CSR budgets of 41 banks to the trust. Following those decisions, letters were sent to different banks and money was collected from their CSR funds in favour of the trust, according to the ACC inquiry.
The ACC said, the accused acted in collusion and used criminal misconduct, abuse of power and undue influence to collect the money from the CSR funds of various banks in the name of the trust. The case alleged that this amounted to criminal breach of trust and caused financial loss to the state.
The alleged offences took place between 2017 and 2024.
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