3 confess to embezzling gold from Samabaya Bank lockers

The Daily Star  February 26, 2021
Star Business Report

Two incumbent bankers and a former official of Bangladesh Samabaya Bank embezzled Tk 11.4 crore by selling gold from the lockers of the lender.

The theft came to surface after they had given confessional statements to the chambers of the magistrates yesterday. The theft took place at the principal branch of the bank in Dhaka.

The three are Deputy General Manager Abdul Alim, Assistant General Manager (Accounts) Hedayet Kabir, and former principal officer Md Mahbubul Haque.

The accused claimed that they had committed the crime as per instruction of the high-officials, including the chairman of the lender, according to the statements.

Three Dhaka metropolitan magistrates — Md Baki Billah, Debbrata Biswas and Satyabrata Sikder — recorded the statements separately.

The chairman and some other senior officials of the bank took a lion share of the money collected by selling the gold, the accused said.

The rest of the fund was misappropriated by the three officials, said an official of the ACC. After recording the confessional statements, the three persons were sent to Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.

They were arrested from the capital’s Shegunbagicha on February 16, according to the ACC. ACC Deputy Director Ibrahim filed the case on the day against nine officials, including the bank’s Chairman Md Mohiuddin Ahmed.