HC sends businessman Ershad Ali to police custody for embezzling Tk 1.76b
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The High Court on Tuesday handed over Md Ershad Ali, chairman of Ershad Brothers Corporation, to the officer in charge of Shahbagh Police Station in Dhaka after rejecting his anticipatory bail petition filed in a corruption case.
Mr Ershad Ali filed for anticipatory bail petition with the High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo and after hearing the parties, the court rejected the petition summarily.
The court asked the officer in charge of the Shahbagh Police Station to place Md Ershad Ali in the concerned lower court within 24 hours from the time of taking him in their custody.
Lawyer Shaikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain appeared in the court on behalf of the businessman, while lawyer Shaheen Ahmed appeared for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case on June 8 in 2021 against 17 persons including two former managing directors (MDs) of AB Bank Mashiur Rahman Chowdhury and Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury on charge of embezzling Tk 1.76 billion by forging some work orders.
Abul Kalam Azad, a Deputy Assistant Director of the ACC, filed the case with the ACC’s integrated office in Dhaka. Md Ershad Ali has been named as the number one accused in the FIR.
Md Ershad Ali and others by forging six work orders misappropriated Tk 1.66 billion from the AB Bank in the name of taking loan against the forged work orders during the period of 214 to 2018.
Apart from this, the officials of AB Bank’s Kakrail branch, without any approval from the head office, also gave another loan of Tk 100 million through seven illegal bank guarantees. The amount was later embezzled. The total amount of embezzled money is Tk 1.76 billion.
Ershad Ali made the fake work orders in the name of the contractors of Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project, Sinohydro Corporation Limited and China Major Bridge Engineering Company Limited, according to the FIR.