Court Reporter: Destiny Group managing director Rafiqul Amin has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and former army chief Harun-ur-Rashid, the company’s president, to four years in prison for embezzling and smuggling customer money.
Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam of Dhaka’s Fourth Special Judge’s Court pronounced the verdict on Thursday.
He has sentenced all the 46 accused to various terms of imprisonment in the case of embezzlement and smuggling of around Tk 1,861 crore of Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society.
Among the accused are retired Lieutenant General Harun-ur-Rashid, and retired Lieutenant Colonel Md. Didarul Alam, Jasmine Akhter (Milon), Ziaul Haque Mollah and Saiful Islam Rubel were on bail. Rafiqul Amin and company chairman Mohammad Hossain were in jail.
The remaining 39 convicts have been absconding since the beginning. Destiny’s Deputy Managing Director Gofranul Haque, Director Mezbah Uddin, Farah Diba, Saeed-ur-Rahman, Jamshed Ara Chowdhury, Irfan Ahmed, Syed Sajjad Hossain, Sheikh Taibur Rahman, Jasim Uddin Bhuiyan, Nepal Chandra Biswas, Zakir Hossain, Mosaddek Ali Khan, Abdul Mannan, SM Ahsanul Kabir, Jubayer Hossain, Abul Kalam Azad, Md. Akbar Hossain Sumon, Azad Rahman, Md. Sumon Ali Khan.
Besides Shirin Akhtar, Rafiqul Islam Sarkar, Kazi Mohammad. Fazlul Karim, Mollah Al Amin, Md. Mojibur Rahman, Dr. M Haiderruzzaman, Mohammad Joynal Abedin, Md. Shafiul Islam, Omar Farooq, Sikder Kabirul Islam, Md. Firoz Alam, Sunil Baran Karmakar, Farid Akhtar, Abdur Rahman Tapan, S Sahiduzzaman Choyan, Sakibuzzaman Khan, SM Ahsanul Kabir, Khandaker Benazir Ahmed, AHM Ataur Rahman Reza, AKM Safiullah, Shah Alam, Md. Delwar Hossain, Golam Kibria Milton, Md. Atiqur Rahman and Md. Shafiqul Haque is also a fugitive.
The case, filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) ten years ago, ended on March 27. The judge then fixed the date of the verdict.
The court heard the testimony of a total of 202 people on behalf of the state in the trial of this case. Destiny’s managing director Rafiqul Amin Safai also testified among the accused.
ACC Deputy Director. Mozahar Ali Sardar and Assistant Director. On July 31, 2012, Taufiqul Islam filed two cases of embezzlement of Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society and Destiny Tree Plantation Project against Kalabagan Police Station in the capital.
Following the investigation, on May 5, 2014, the ACC filed charge sheets in both the cases in the court. Of these, 46 were convicted in the Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society case and 19 in the Destiny Tree Plantation Limited corruption case. Harun-ur-Rashid and Rafiqul Amin are accused in both cases.
According to the chargesheet, Destiny had collected TK 1,901 crore from investors in the name of multipurpose cooperative projects since 2006. The ACC investigation found that TK 1,861 crore was embezzled from there. As a result of the embezzlement of that money, 8 lakh investors suffered losses.
And Destiny Tree Plantation raised Rs 2,445 crore from investors through the project. Of this, 2,257 crores 78 lakh 77 thousand taka were embezzled. As a result, 17 lakh investors were affected.
According to the investigation report, several of the 28 companies named after Destiny Group were nominal. The accused first deposited the project money at different institutions, then transferred it to different banks.
The ACC found, 722 such accounts in 34 banks, which were later seized. Of the TK 4,119 crore embezzled, TK 96 crore was allegedly smuggled abroad in two cases. The case of Multipurpose Co-operative Society was decided.
The case against the officials of Destiny Tree Plantation Limited is now under testimony.
