The High Court today (19 July) stayed the proceedings of a fraud and breach of trust case filed on behalf of Somoy Television against its chairman and other directors.
The court also issued a rule asking why the case should not be quashed and fixed 4 August for the full hearing.
The order was passed by the High Court bench of Justice KM Zahid Sarwar and Justice Sheikh Abu Taher.
Senior lawyer Shishir Manir represented Somoy Television Limited during the hearing.
According to Shishir Manir, the case was filed by the institution’s former director Ahmed Jobaer on behalf of Somoy Television after authorising a person named Sunny Chowdhury through a letter of authority.
The lower court took cognisance of the case and later issued arrest warrants.
He said the board of directors of Somoy Television subsequently decided not to pursue the case.
Shishir argued that Jobaer had no authority from Somoy Television to file the case on the company’s behalf.
“Somoy Television did not give Ahmed Jobaer any letter of authority or any power to file the case. Despite that, he filed it in the company’s name,” he told journalists.
He said the company later applied to the lower court to withdraw the case, but the application was rejected.
Somoy Television then challenged that order by filing a petition under Section 561(A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure before the High Court.
Following the hearing, the High Court stayed the proceedings of the case for one month and issued a rule asking why the criminal proceedings should not be quashed.
Monir said allowing such cases to proceed without proper authorisation from the company would be unlawful.
“Otherwise, anyone could initiate a criminal case on behalf of a company against anyone they wish. That is not acceptable in law,” he said.
Earlier, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka issued arrest warrants against five people, including City Group Managing Director Md Hasan, in connection with allegations of misappropriating advertisement bills worth Tk5.34 crore belonging to Somoy Media.
The other accused are former Somoy TV Managing Director Shampa Rahman, former Director Mhorshedul Islam, former Head of Marketing Md Ahsanul Islam, and former Senior Manager Ayesha Siddiqua.
The fraud and breach of trust case was filed by former Somoy Television director Ahmed Jobaer as the plaintiff.
The arrest warrants were issued on 7 July after the accused failed to appear before Metropolitan Magistrate Ishrat Jahan.
The High Court’s stay order temporarily suspends all proceedings in the case, including the arrest warrants issued against the accused.
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