Dhaka – The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed separate appeals filed by the Bangladesh Bank against the High Court verdicts that directed the government to return around Tk 615 crore, which was realised during the emergency rule, from several companies.A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha delivered the verdict after dismissing 11 appeals filed by Bangladesh Bank challenging the High Court judgment.
Bangladesh Bank authorities filed the appeals against several High Court (HC) orders that directed the government to return about Tk. 615 crore realised from 11 companies during the tenure of the Army-backed caretaker government.
Barristers Rokanuddin Mahmud, Shafique Ahmed, Yusuf Hossain Humayun, Ahsanul Karim, Khairul Alam and MA Hannan, among others, argued for the business establishments while Barrister M Amir-Ul Islam stood for Bangladesh Bank and Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state.
However, M Amir-Ul Islam, counsel for the BB, told reporters that the Bangladesh may file review petitions after getting the full copy of the verdict.
Later, Advocate Ahsanul Karim, one of the counsels for the companies, told reporters that it would be cleared after getting the full copy of the verdict about the process of giving money to the companies.
In response to the petitions, the HC had from August 24, 2010 till 2015 on separate dates asked the government to return about Tk. 615 crore to 11 companies, as the amount was collected from these companies illegally.
The DGFI officials collected 60 crore from 7 companies of S Alam group — S Alam Steels Ltd, S Alam Cold Rolled Steel Ltd, S Alam Brand Ltd, S Alam Vegetable Oil Ltd, Galco Steels Ltd, Chemon Ispat Ltd and S Alam Super Edible Oil Ltd while they also collected Tk 237 crore from from Consolidated Tea and Land (Bangladesh) Ltd and Boraoora (Sylhet) Tea Company, TK 52 crore from Meghna Cement Ltd, TK 15 crore from Bashundhara Paper Mills Ltd and East West Property Ltd, TK 90 lakh from Unique Eastern Property Ltd, TK 70 from Unique Ceramics Industries (Pvt) Ltd, TK 17.55 crore from Unique Hotel and Resort Ltd, TK 65 lakh from Unique Vocational Training Centre, TK 7.1 crore from Borak Real Estate (Pvt) Ltd, TK 35 crore from Easter Housing Ltd, and TK 189 crore from East West Property Development (Pvt) Ltd.
Apart from these amount, the DGFI officials also collected at about 600 crore money from other companies, according to the Bangladesh Bank sources. – Staff Reporter
