By Sumi Khan
Narendra Kumar Sinha has testified against his brother, the former Chief Justice of Bangladesh Surendra Kumar Sinha in a case that involves the embezzlement of 40 million taka in credit from The Farmers Bank.
Justice Sinha was the first non-Muslim Chief Justice of Bangladesh. He was in January 2015.
In September 2017, a Supreme Court bench headed by Surendra Kumar Sinha had given a judgement striking down the 16th constitutional amendment of Bangladesh which gave power to Parliament to remove Justices of the apex court.
The judgment created tension between him and the government.
Surendra Kumar Sinha left Bangladesh for Australia in October 2017 three months before his retirement and sent his resignation in November that year from abroad.
After he left for Australia, the Supreme Court said that Justice Sinha had been facing 11 specific charges, including corruption, money laundering, financial irregularities and moral blunder.
In July 2019, he sought political asylum in Canada and is currently staying in the US.
The former Chief Justice’s nephew Shankhajit Sinha also deposed against him in the loan fraud case of the bank, which is currently the Padma Bank, at the court on Monday.
Both of them said an account with the Uttara branch of the Capital of Shahjalal Islami Bank was opened “on instructions from Surendra Kumar Sinha”, but they said that they had “no idea” about the transfer of 22.5 million taka in it.
Narendra, aged 70, is Surendra Kumar Sinha’s elder brother and Shankhajit is the son of his maternal cousin.
Mahbubul Haque Chisty alias Babul Chishti, the former chairman of Farmers Bank’s audit committee who is also accused in the case, fell ill during the witness hearing and was taken to the National Medical College Hospital near the court.
He was later taken back to the jail.
The nine others accused in the case are KM Shamim, former managing director of Farmers Bank, its former senior executive vice president Gazi Salauddin, first vice president Swapon Kumar Ray, first vice president Shafiuddin Askary, vice president Lutful Haque, Tangail residents Md Shahjahan, Niranjan Chandra Saha, Ranajit Chandra Saha and his wife Shanti Ray.
Md Ziauddin Ahmed, a former manager of the bank’s Gulshan branch, had been accused in the case initially but the investigator dropped charges against him.
Sheikh Nazmul Alam, Judge of Dhaka’s Special Court No. 4 adjourned the hearing until Jan 13, 2021.
According to the case dossier, Surendra Kumar Sinha illegally created fake loans, transferred the money to different bank accounts and withdrew it in cash and through pay-orders before smuggling it secretly.
The accused abused power in collusion to achieve dishonest goals to influence the lending procedure for their own and others’ benefits, the charge-sheet added.
The national anti-graft agency of Bangladesh later launched an investigation into allegations that the fund was deposited into Surendra Kumar Sinha’s bank account, credited as the proceeds of the sale of his house.
