The High Court on Wednesday (March 6) granted one year’s bail to Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited managing director Rafiqul Amin who was jailed for 12 years in a case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) allegedly for laundering Tk 4,200 crore.
The bail was given on condition that he would deposit his passport to the court.
A High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Ebadat Hossain accepted an appeal submitted to the court seeking bail during the under-trial of an appeal against 12 years’ jail sentence. However, he would not get released now as there are several other cases pending aginst him.
Advocate Syed Mamun Mahbub appeared for the petitioner, while ACC was represented by its lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan.
Later, Khurshid Alam Khan said he informed the commission about the bail. Now, appeal would be possible if the commission makes its decision.
On June 22, 2022, the High Court accepted an appeal of Rafiqul Alin for hearing. At the same time, the court suspended the order to pay Tk 200 crore fine against him.
On May 12, 2022, Judge Shaikh Nazmul Alam of the Fourth Special Judge’s Court sentenced Rafiqul Amin and 45 other accused in the case slapping different jail terms. At the same time, his fined money of Tk 2,300 crore was withdrawn. The court also sentenced 46 people including Rafiqul Alam to jail on different terms.
Rafiqul Amin was given 12 years imprisonment with a Tk 200 crore fine and his wife Farah Diba was awarded eight-years imprisonment in this case.
Farah Diba and 36 other convicts are now absconding.
On June 16, Rafiqul Amin moved the High Court against the sentence.
On July 31, 2012, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed two seperate cases with Kalabagan Police Station in the capital against 22 Destiny officials on charge of laundering the money. The case statement also mentioned that Rafiqul Amin and other officials of Destiny embezzling money from the investors in the name of Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society and Destiny Tree Plantation Limited and laundered it.
According to the cases, Destiny Group collected Tk 1,901 crore from the investors and embezzled Tk 1,861.45 crore of it. As a result, its 8,00,000 investors faced losses.
Two ACC investigators — Mozahar Ali Sarder and Tawfiqul Islam — submitted the charge sheets against 51 Destiny officials on May 4, 2014.
According to the charge sheets, the accused misappropriated about Tk 4,200 crore through its tree plantation project and the cooperative firm and laundered money abroad.
The accused embezzled the money in the names of paying salaries, honorarium, commission, incentives, and promotional costs. They transferred the money to their bank accounts and those of the group’s 20 companies.
The other accused Destiny Director Mohammad Hossain, officials Gofranul Huq, Sayed-ur Rahman, Mejbah Uddin Swapan, Syed Sazzad Hossain, Irfan Ahmed Sunny, Farha Diba, Jamshed Ara Chowdhury, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, Nepal Chandra Biswas, Zakir Hossain, Azad Rahman, Akbar Hossain Sumon, Shirin Akhter, Lt Col (retd) Didarul Alam, Rafiqul Islam Sarkar, Majibur Rahman, Sumon Ali Khan, Saidul Islam Khan Rubel, and Abul Kalam Azad.
