Court orders confiscation of Shakib Al Hasan’s assets in Tk4.14 cr cheque fraud case

A Dhaka court has ordered the confiscation of assets belonging to former member of parliament and cricketer Shakib Al Hasan in connection with a cheque fraud case, reports Prothom Alo.

The order was issued today (24 March) by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ziadur Rahman of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka, confirmed Atiqur Rahman, a bench assistant of the court.

Earlier on 19 January, the court had issued an arrest warrant against Shakib Al Hasan, who is currently living abroad, in a case involving the bounced cheques of Tk4.14 crore.

The court had set today as the deadline for submitting the execution report of the arrest warrant. As police reported that the accused could not be arrested, the court subsequently ordered the confiscation of his assets.

The case was filed on 15 December by IFIC Bank's Public Relations Officer Sahibur Rahman against Shakib and three others. That day, the court summoned the accused to appear in court, setting the next hearing for 19 January.

While Imdadul Haque, director of Shakib Al Hasan Agro Farm Limited, appeared and applied for bail, Shakib and Gazi Shahagir Hossain, the company's managing director, failed to appear.

Following a petition from the plaintiff, the court issued arrest warrants against Shakib and Gazi Shahagir. It was also informed that another accused, Malaika Begum, had passed away, prompting the court to direct the officer-in-charge of the concerned police station to submit a report on her death.

According to case details, the agro farm took a loan of Tk1 crore as working capital and Tk1.5 crore as a term loan from the IFIC Bank's Banani branch in 2017.

Later, due to the company's failure to repay the working capital loan on time, the bank converted it into a term loan.

After issuing several notices for repayment, the company provided two cheques totalling Tk4.14 crore, including interest and principal, to the bank on 4 September last year. However, the cheques bounced due to insufficient funds in the relevant account.

Later in October, IFIC Bank issued a legal notice to Shakib Al Hasan Agro Farm, demanding repayment of the outstanding loan, in line with the Negotiable Instruments Act.

In it, the bank said the company must repay the money within 30 working days of receiving the notice and failure to do so would lead to legal action by the bank against Shakib's company.