HC to hear Rafiqul Amin’s appeal, stays fine
Destiny Group Managing Director Rafiqul Amin has appealed to the High Court against the verdict of 12 years imprisonment and a Tk200 crore fine handed down by a trial court for embezzling and laundering customers' money.
The High Court bench comprising Justice SM Kuddus Zaman and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan has stayed the order on realising the fine until settlement of the appeal after accepting it on 22 June for hearing, Rafiqul Amin's lawyer Ujjal Kumar Bhowmik told the media on Monday.
On 12 May, Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam of Dhaka Special Judges Court-4 sentenced Rafiqul Amin to 12 years imprisonment in a case of embezzling customers' money from Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society and money laundering.
Destiny Group President former Army Chief Lt General (retd) M Harun-Ar-Rashid was also sentenced to 4-years of imprisonment.
The court further sentenced the other 44 accused in the case to different terms of imprisonment and fine.
On 31 July 2012, ACC lodged two separate cases with Dhaka's Kalabagan police station against Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society and Destiny Tree Plantation Limited on the charge of embezzlement and laundering more than Tk4,119 crore.
After two years of investigation, ACC on 4 May 2014 submitted charge sheets against 19 and 46 suspects in the cases. Some 12 accused including Rafiqul Amin were indicted in both cases.
Recording of witness testimony is still going on in the tree plantation case.
The national graft buster in the charge sheet regarding the Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society case noted that the accused cheated more than 8.5 lakh investors from July 2009 to June 2012.
During this period, the accused collected more than Tk1,901 crore from the investors in the name of lending services, investment in non-profit organisations and opening new companies. From the deposits by the investors, the accused misappropriated more than Tk1,861 crore in the name of dividends, honorarium, salary and allowances.
Presently, Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited has only Tk50 lakh in its frozen bank account.
