Arrest warrant against four Nurjahan Group owners

A Chattogram court has issued an arrest warrant against four owners of Nurjahan Group, a Chattogram-based conglomerate, in a case filed in connection with defaulting Tk128.78 crore in loans. 

They are Nurjahan Group Managing Director Zahir Ahmed Ratan, Directors Mizanur Rahman, Tipu Sultan, and Farhad Manowar. Of them, Tipu Sultan is in jail in another default loan case.

Judge Mujahidur Rahman of the Chattogram Money Loan Court gave the order on Wednesday in a case filed by the Asadganj branch of Agrani Bank in the port city.

Earlier on 10 January, the court issued an arrest warrant against its managing director and one of the directors in another case filed by the bank's Agrabad corporate branch for defaulting Tk936crore in loans.

According to the case dockets, earlier in 2013, Agrani Bank had filed a case against Nurjahan Group, for an unpaid loan of Tk128.78 crore. On 28 February last year, the court ordered the group for repaying the loan in a case filed by the bank.

The same court, in February last year, sentenced three Nurjahan Group owners, including the chairman and director, to five months in prison for going into hiding without paying the bank's Tk325 crore in loan.

Nurjahan Group is one of the giants of the consumer goods business. Even though it used to do business with dominance in consumer goods including edible oil, wheat, and spices, the business is not the same anymore.

The group's business has shrunk amid rising debts over the past few years. In the last five to seven years, most of the companies of the group shut their businesses in phases.

Of the loans, three sister concerns of the group took loans of Tk936 crore from the Agrabad branch of Agrani Bank, Tk128.78 crore from the bank's Asadganj branch, Tk544 crore from Rupali Bank, Tk500 crore from National Bank, Tk326 crore from Janata Bank and Tk106 crore from Sonali Bank.