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Hall-Mark Loan Scam

HC yet to decide if bail to Jasmine legal or not

Continuous shutdowns, blockades blamed for delay

Ashutosh Sarkar
The High Court is yet to decide on the legality of the conditional bail granted to Hall-Mark Group Chairman Jasmine Islam in the Ioan scam cases, as it could not function regularly due to persistent political shutdowns and blockades.
In August last year, a Dhaka court granted bail to Jasmine in all the 11 cases in connection with the Sonali Bank loan scam. The condition was she would refund to the bank Tk 100 crore every month in loan payment.
Not only did she not pay the money, she also filed several petitions with the High
Court, challenging the very condition she was granted the bail on.
For flouting the court order, the AntiCorruption Commission filed 11 separate petitions with the High Court in late August seeking cancellation of the bail to Jasmine, whose business group swindled around Tk2,600croreoutofSonali Bank.
Jasmine has violated the bail condition, said ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan. "She is taking the advantage of some legal interpretations to remain out of jail," he told The Daily Star.
A Hieh Court bench on September 1 issued 11 rules asking the government to explain why the bail of Jasmine should not be cancelled.
In early October, Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain asked the HC bench of Justice Md Rezaul Haque and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore to hear and dispose of the ACC’s petitions.
This bench started final hearing on the petitions in November and ordered ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam to submit the charge sheets and the lower court's orders before it in seven days. Accordingly, the ACC lawyer submitted the documents to the High Court bench on November
20, according to court sources.
The judges of the bench could not perform judicial activities after November 25 due to blockades and hartals enforced by the opposition parties on different issues, while The High Court went on a 20-day annual vacation on December 13. It reopens today.
Jasmine’s lawyer Shah Monjurul Hoque told The Daily Star that the ACC's petitions challenging his client's bail were on the hearing list of the High Court. The hearing will be held any day after reopening of the court, he said.
Jasmine Islam also filed 11 petitions with the High
Court in August challenging the conditions imposed by a Dhaka court, which are also pending now, Monjurul added.
He said Jasmine had prayed to the Dhaka court to extend her bail till disposal of the ACC's petitions at the High Court. The Dhaka court has extended the bail of Jasmine at least three times following her prayer, the counsel added.
The ACC filed the 11 cases against 27 top officials of Sonali Bank and Hall-Mark Group on October 4, 2012 for their involvement in the biggest financial scam in the country.
Tanvir Mahmud, the managing director of the group and the suspected
mastermind, is now in jail.
Hall-Mark and five other companies in connivance with officials of the state-run bank had taken Tk 3,547 crore in loan from its Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch using forged documents.
Hall-Mark, a little known group before the scam came to light, took around Tk 2,600 crore alone, says a Bangladesh Bank investigation report.
On August 4 last year, the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka granted her bail after her lawyer Kazi Md Nazibullah Hint said his client would pay Tk 100 crore every month to the state-run bank until the loan was repaid.