The High Court has dropped the ruling on the bail application of two former trustees of North South University in the money embezzlement case. Those two former trustees are Rehana Rahman and MA Kashem.
On Wednesday (September 7), a bench comprising Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif and Justice Biswajit Debnath of the High Court passed the order.
Senior lawyer Advocate Md. Khurshid Alam Khan. Senior advocate M. was on behalf of the defendants. Syed Ahmed Raja.
Later, lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said, during the hearing of the anticipatory bail application of the former trustees of North South, the junior judge of this bench, Biswajit Debnath, was the lawyer of the state. Therefore, he expressed his inability to hear the ruling on their bail. For this reason, the rule on bail has been omitted from the agenda.
On August 2, the High Court issued a ruling seeking to know why MA Kashem and Rehena Rahman, two members of the Board of Trustees of North South University, should not be granted bail in the embezzlement case of Tk 303 crore 82 lakh. High Court Justice Md. A bench comprising Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat issued the ruling.
Earlier on May 22, the High Court rejected the bail application of four former members of the Board of Trustees of North South University in the case of embezzlement. They were handed over to Shahbagh police and asked to appear before the lower court within 24 hours. The four members of the Board of Trustees are – MA Kashem, Benazir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Mohammad Shahjahan.
The court said in the order that there is an allegation of embezzlement of Tk 303 crore 82 lakh against the petitioner accused. Considering the seriousness of the offence, the petitioning accused cannot get anticipatory bail. Besides, they could not show the court a reasonable, acceptable reason for getting anticipatory bail. Due to which the anticipatory bail application was rejected directly and they were handed over to the police.
The officer-in-charge (OC) of Shahbagh police station was directed to produce the accused before the concerned court within 24 hours of being taken into custody. When they were produced in the lower court on May 23, the court sent them to jail. Since then they are in jail.
Earlier, on May 12, the ACC filed a case against six people including the chairman of the board of trustees of the university for embezzling additional expenditure of Tk 303 crore 82 lakh for the purchase of land for North South University campus. Deputy Director Md. Said Mahbub Khan, director general of the commission, said that Farid Ahmed Patwari filed this case in Dhaka.
The defendants in the case are Azim Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the board of trustees of North South University, four members of the board, MA Kashem, Benazir Ahmed, Rehana Rahman and Mohammad Shahjahan and managing director of Ashalay Housing and Developers Limited, Amin Md. Hilali.
It is said in the statement that the North South University Syndicate, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Education have bypassed the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Education with the approval or consent of a few members of the Board of Trustees, in the name of campus development, the price of 9 thousand 96.88 decimal land has been shown to be Tk 303 crore 82 lakh 13 thousand 497 more. has been embezzled.
It is alleged against the accused that they paid the money in the seller’s name first by showing the high price despite buying the land at a low price for the nefarious purpose of misappropriating the funds of the university. Later, they withdraw the money from the seller through cash checks in the name of their own people and put the FDR in their own name. Later, they embezzled the money of FDR.
“He also committed the crime of money laundering by transferring and transferring said money to conceal the location of illegal and criminal proceeds.”
The accused have been charged in the case under Section 409/109/420/161/165 A of the Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and Section 4(2)(3) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act-2012.
According to the Private University Act-2010, the highest authority for managing North South University is the Board of Trustees. According to the Memorandum of Association and Articles (Rules and Regulations) of the University, the University is a charitable, welfare oriented, non-commercial and non-profit organization.
FH/MAH/MS
