Tk1,500cr default: Order issued to bring back Imam Group's Mohammad Ali, his wife
A Chattogram court on Sunday ordered authorities concerned to bring Imam Group's owner Mohammad Ali, who is accused of defaulting Tk1,500 crore loans in dozens of cases, and his wife Zebunnesa Aktar back to the country.
Artha Rin Adalat (money loan court) Judge Muzahidur Rahman handed down the order and asked the Sonali Bank managing director to take all necessary steps, in collaboration with the inspector general of police and the foreign ministry, for the implementation of the order.
The court also issued an arrest order against the accused, Bench Assistant Rezaul Karim confirmed the matter to The Business Standard.
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"The default loans of Mohammad Ali to 15 banks and financial institutions amount to Tk 1500 crore. Most cases against him were filed with the money loan court between 2012 and 2013. The banks have failed to recover their lent money even in the long 10 years," he said and added that the court has issued the arrest order in connection with a pending case filed by Sonali Bank's Agrabad branch for recovery of Tk184.78 crore.
Earlier on 14 May, the court issued another arrest warrant against Mohammad Ali and his son Ali Imam for the non-payment of Tk186 crore to National Bank.
Mohammad Ali was a member of the board of directors of NCC Bank once and he used this identity to take loans from different banks. Later, he was removed from the NCC Bank board when his shareholding in the bank fell below 2% and he became a loan defaulter.
Starting career as a shopkeeper, Ali grew big one day and dominated Khatunganj – the biggest wholesale hub for daily commodities – for a long time. Although he was known as "blacker" in Chattogram in the 1990s for his illegal trades, his businesses expanded into various sectors such as garments, machinery imports and so on.
Most of the loans granted against these businesses were used for purchasing land. He, however, had been failing to repay these loans since 2010 as his land business incurred huge losses.
In 2020, Mohammad Ali and his wife Zebunnesa Akhtar fled to the United Arab Emirates after an arrest warrant was issued in 55 cases filed by various banks.
