A court has given go-ahead to begin the trial proceedings in a case over defaulting of Tk 455 million loan by Dandy Dyeing Ltd.
Among the 16 accused in the case are BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, her elder son Tarique Rahman, and the wife and daughters of her late younger son Arafat Rahman Coco.
Judge Fatema Ferdous of Dhaka’s First Money Loan Court on Tuesday framed charges in the case and set Mar 1 for witnesses’ depositions, confirmed Jahangir Alam, lawyer of Sonali Bank Ltd that filed the case on Oct 2, 2013.
After main accused Coco’s death in January last year, his wife Sharmila Rahman Sithi and daughters Zahia Rahman and Zafia Rahman along with his mother Khaleda were made the new defendants in the case.
Barrister Fakhrul Islam represented them during the framing of charges.
Coco, along with his family, had been living in Malaysia for over six years despite being convicted by a Bangladesh court for laundering money.
Though his wife and daughters came to Bangladesh for his burial, they went back to Malaysia afterwards and are now, according to BNP insiders, living in Thailand.
Earlier, the bank had implicated the wife and son of another accused, Mozaffar Ahmed, following his death.
The other defendants include Dandy Dyeing Ltd, the wife and three children of Khaleda’s late brother Sayeed Iskander, Tarique’s business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun and his wife Shahina Begum.
According to the case details, Dandy Dyeing commenced business in 1992 with a capital of Tk 30 million.
In May 1993, it took a loan of Tk 131.4 million from Sonali Bank. The bank disbursed a fresh loan in 1996 on an application by Sayeed Iskander.
On Apr 4, 2010, the outstanding loan stood at around Tk 427 million which the defendants had not repaid despite being served with notices on several occasions.
In 2001, the bank authorities exempted Dandy Dyeing from paying the interest on a loan of Tk 121.6 million.
Source: Bd news24
