Former Chief Justice Sinha sentenced to 11 years jail

He was given 7 years jail sentence for money laundering and 4 years for corruption. Since both the sentences will continue simultaneously, the country’s former chief justice, now staying in Canada, will have to suffer 7 years jail sentence.

Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam of the Special Judge’s Court-4, Dhaka pronounced the judgement on Tuesday afternoon while delivering a 182-page verdict.

Moreover, eight, out of 10 other accused, of the case were sentenced to different jail terms. Two other accused were also acquitted.

Former chairman of then Farmer’s Bank’s audit committee Md Mahbubul Huque Chisty alias Babul Chisty, former managing director AKM Shameem, first vice-president Swapan Kumar Roy, vice-president M Lutful Huque, senior executive vice-president Gazi Salauddin, Shafiuddin Askaree, Ranajit Chandra Saha, and Ranajit’s wife Shanti Roy were sentenced to different jail terms.

And the rest two–Shahjahan and Niranjan Chandra Saha–were acquitted as the charges against them were not proved.

The judge sentenced former Chief Justice SK Sinha to 7 years’ jail for embezzling and laundering Tk 4 crore of the loan of Farmers Bank (now Padma Bank) through forgery.

Besides, he was given another 4 years’ jail sentence for corruption.

Moreover, SK Sinha was fined Tk 45 lakh in the judgement. In default, he will have to suffer another 6 months in jail.

Besides, the judge ordered to confiscate his property worth Tk 78 lakh.

On the other hand, former managing director of Farmers Bank AKM Shamim was given 4 years’ jail sentence. The rest of the seven accused were given 3 years’ jail sentence each.

Earlier, the judge set October 21 to deliver the judgement. But, November 9 was later fixed as the judge ‘could not prepare his judgement.’ Before it, the judge fixed October 5 to deliver the verdict. But, delivering of the judgement was deferred as the ‘judge fell sick.’ On September 14 last, the ACC and lawyers of the accused concluded their arguments.

Accused Md Ziauddin Ahmed was acquitted from the case as he died during the investigation. The absconding accused of the case are SK Sinha, first vice-president Shafiuddin Ashkary, Tangail’s inhabitants Ranjit Chandra Saha and hus wife.

Except the absconding accused, seven other accused were present at the court. The judge started reading out the 182-page judgement at 11:05am arriving inside the court. After reading out the judgement for more than two hours, he delivered his final judgement.

In October 2018, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said it found evidence of fraud involving transactions of Tk 4 crore borrowed with fake documents by two businessmen, Shahjahan and Niranjan, from the Farmers Bank (now Padma Bank). Later, the money was deposited to former Chief Justice SK Sinha’s bank account.

On July 10, 2019, ACC director Syed Iqbal Hossain filed a case with its Integrated District Office-1 of Dhaka against SK Sinha and 10 others on charge of transferring Tk 4 crore from Farmers Bank to Sinha’s personal account and then embezzling the entire amount.

On December 9 that year, Investigation Officer Md Benazir Ahmed, also the ACC director, submitted charge-sheet against them in the case.

On August 13, 2020, the court framed charges against them.

When the case proceedings were going on in the court, no lawyers appeared at the court on behalf of four absconding accused including SK Sinha. The absconding other accuse were Farmers Bank first vice-president Shafiuddin Ashkary, Tangail’s Ranjit Chandra Saha and his wife Shanti Roy Simi.