Arrest warrant issued against Imam Group MD, director
In 2012, National Bank filed a case against the owner of Imam Group to recover defaulted loan of Tk187 crore
A Chattogram court has issued an arrest warrant against Imam Group Managing Director Mohammad Ali and his son and director of the company Ali Imam in a case filed by National Bank for defaulting Tk187 crore loan.
The judge of the Chattogram Financial Debt Court Mujahidur Rahman passed on Sunday.
The court bench assistant Rezaul Karim said the court issued an arrest warrant of five months against the duo.
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According to the court information, in 2012, National Bank filed a case against the directors of Imam Group for recovery of Tk186.93 crore defaulted loans taken from the bank's Agrabad branch.
In 2014, following a verdict in its favour from the Money Loan Court, the bank filed an execution case in the same year to retrieve the money. The condition was that Imam Group would pay National Bank Tk5 crore by Sunday (14 May), according to the deed of compromise.
However, the company failed to make the payment and thus the arrest warrant was issued as per the terms of the deed.
Imam Group's Mohammad Ali has been absconding and staying in the United Arab Emirates since mid-2019 after being convicted in several civil and criminal cases, according to court information.
Various institutions, owned by Muhammad Ali, owe fifteen banks and financial institutions in the country about Tk800 crore, most of which was not repaid.
Sixty cases have been filed against the group for collection of defaulted loans and cheque dishonour. Out of these, there are arrest warrants in 55 cases.
Besides, he was sentenced to two years in prison in more than 10 cheque dishonour cases.
He took most of the loans between 2000 and 2005.
Cases against him began to pile up in 2012-2013 when he was not repaying loans for a decade.
In the 1990s, Muhammad Ali was known as "Blacker Muhammad Ali" in Chattogram for illegally importing goods.
During this time, the company used to control much of the consumer goods market in Khatunganj. Before that, he worked as a staff of various shops in the Khatunganj-Teribazar area.
Later, he started garments and machinery import businesses. He took loans to invest in these sectors but spent most of the amount on land purchases.
Since 2010, he started incurring losses in his business and failed to repay loans.
