The Appellate Division on Monday deferred until February 5 the hearing of an appeal filed by S Alam Group chairman Mohammad Saiful Alam and his wife Farzana Parveen, challenging a High Court order for an inquiry into the reported money laundering and offshore investment allegation against the couple.
The Appellate Division also extended its status-quo until February 5 halting the probe order.
The court also asked S Alam’s senior lawyer Ajmalul Hossain to add lawyer Syed Sayedul Haque Suman as respondents to his case so that he could make submissions over the allegations against the couple.
Suman, who is now independent lawmaker, had brought the allegation of money laundering, to the High Court’s notice, following which the HC issued the suo motu for the probe.
Ajmalul Hossain argued that the High Court had no power of issuing suo motu for inquiring into the allegations as the issue did not violate the fundamental rights of any citizen.
Ajmalul said that Suman got temporarily involved with the issue and obtained such rulings from the court for ‘political leverage’.
He called Suman’s act as ‘mischief’.
Earlier on January 8, a four-member bench, headed by Justice Borhanuddin, deferred the hearing until January 15.
The Appellate Division chamber judge M Enayetur Rahim on August 23, 2023, ordered maintenance of the ‘status quo’ until January 8, 2024, over the High Court order for probe into the reported offshore investment of Tk 11,000 crore by Saifur and his wife.
The chamber judge also set January 8, 2024 for hearing the couple’s appeal by full court.
The status-quo order barred the Anti Corruption Commission, Criminal Investigation Department and Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit from holding their probes for two months, as the High Court directs these authorities.
The chamber judge passed the status-quo order after hearing a petition filed by the couple on August 21, 2023 for staying a suo motu High Court order asking for the probe into allegations of money laundering and offshore investment without permission from the relevant government authorities.
The chamber judge earlier on September 15, 2023, refused to ban reports and remarks on offshore investment and money laundering allegations against Saiful Alam and his wife Farzana Parveen.
The judge, however, kept the couple’s petition in the record of their previous petition against a suo motu probe order by the High Court.
The couple filed the second petition, seeking a ban on newspapers, especially New Age, The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, and individuals, including YouTuber and lawyer Suman, from publishing such reports or remarks regarding money laundering allegations against them.
Earlier on December 4, 2022, the High Court asked the government agencies to hold inquiries into alleged irregularities in obtaining loans from three private banks—Islami Bank Limited, First Security Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, and Social Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited—by S Alam Group.
The bench passed the suo motu order after taking cognisance of the four newspaper reports on the allegations of disbursement of loans to the company and others by the three profit-making banks.
New Age on November 30, 2022, published a report under the headline ‘S Alam Group lifts Tk 30,000 crore loans from IBBL alone’.
The Daily Star report titled ‘TK 7,246 crore loans to 9 firms: BB probing breach of rules at Islami Bank’ was published on November 29, 2022.
Protham Alo on November 24, 2022, published a report under the headline ‘Islami Banke Bhayangkar November’ (Terrible November in Islami Bank).
Business Standard report headlined ‘How a 24-year-old greenhorn blessed with a Tk 900 crore loan’ was published on November 27, 2022.
High Court’s latest order on the probe came on August 6, 2023, taking cognisance of a report titled ‘S Alam’s Aladdin’s lamp’ published in The Daily Star on August 4, 2023.
New Age