BASIC Bank scam: Five bail petitions by Iqbal Hossain Bhuiyan denied

The  High Court yesterday refused to grant bail to Iqbal Hossain  Bhuiyan, a business partner of survey organisation SD Survey, in five  separate cases filed in connection with BASIC Bank loan scam.

However, the court issued five separate rules asking the Anti-Corruption  Commission and government to explain within four weeks why Iqbal Hossain  Bhuiyan should not be granted bail in the cases.

The  HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Ahmed Sohel  came up with the rules after virtually hearing five separate bail  petitions filed by Bhuiyan, in connection with cases  filed with Paltan Police Station in September 2015.

According  to a Bangladesh Bank enquiry, in the four years between 2009 and 2013,  Tk 4,500 crore was swindled out of BASIC Bank, once a healthy public bank.

In  2015, the ACC filed 56 cases in connection with the scam, but  rather quizzically, neither BASIC Bank's then chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu  nor any of the board members were named as the accused.