A Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced nine people, including seven former officials of Sonali Bank Limited, to 17 years in prison for embezzling Tk27.50 lakh.
Md Iqbal Hossain, judge of the Dhaka special judges court-5, pronounced the verdict in the presence of five of the convicts in the case.
The court awarded the convicts ten years’ imprisonment and fined Tk27.50 lakh each under Section 5 (2) of Prevention Of Corruption Act; it also sentenced the bank officials to seven years more of imprisonment and fined them Tk50,000 each under Sections 409 and 420 of the Penal Code.
The convicts are Sonali Bank’s former managing director Humayun Kabir, deputy managing director Mainul Haque, general manager Noni Gopal Nath, deputy general managers Sheikh Altaf Hossain and Sofiz Uddin Ahmed and assistant general managers Saiful Hasan and Kamrul Hossain Khan.
Two other convicts are Saiful Islam Raza, managing director of Paragon Knit Composite Ltd, a sister concern of Hallmark Group, and one of its directors Abdullah Al Mamun.
The court also said the punishment of the fugitives would be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender.
According to the case documents, it was alleged that the accused, in collusion with each other, misappropriated Tk 27,50,681 of Sonali Bank through forgery.
ACC Deputy Assistant Director Mujibur Rahman filed a case against Humayun Kabir and eight others with Ramna police station on January 1, 2013.
Later, ACC Assistant Director Moshiur Rahman…
