Court orders arrest of Chandanaish upazila chairman candidate for Tk118cr default loan

A court has ordered the immediate arrest of Jashim Uddin, a Chandanaish upazila chairman candidate in Chattogram, for wilfully defaulting loans of over Tk100 crore. 

The directive came from Judge Mujahidur Rahman of Chattogram Money Loan Court after Jashim was seen actively participating in upazila election campaigning despite having an arrest warrant issued against him in the default loan case.

Confirming the matter, assistant bench of the money loan court, Rezaul Karim, said, "This chairman candidate owes two banks about Tk118 crore. 

"In a case filed by one of the banks, the court has already issued three orders against him: one prohibiting him from leaving the country, second for his arrest, and the third for seizure of assets due to non-repayment of loans."

"However, since he was openly campaigning for upazila elections despite the orders, the court directed the officer-in-charge of Chandanaish upazila to arrest him immediately," Rezaul added.

Currently, even after being classified as a defaulter, Jashim has been actively campaigning for the upcoming upazila polls in Chandanaish.

Jashim, in his election affidavit, did mention loans of Tk60 crore from Padma Bank's Khatunganj branch and Tk11.63 crore from Sonali Bank's Motijheel branch but marked the defaulter section as "not applicable."

According to Padma Bank records, Jashim, owner of Jessica Trade International, obtained a loan of Tk60 crore from Padma Bank's Khatunganj branch in 2016, as working capital for a trading business. 

Taken under the Cash Credit-Hypothecation category, the loan was to be repaid within a year after the end of the business. However, the repayment has not been made even after nearly 8 years. 

In 2022, the bank had restructured the loan with full interest waiver, but Jashim has still not paid the amount as per the conditions. Currently, the outstanding amount is about Tk88 crore with interest.

On 28 July, 2020, Padma Bank filed a loan case (case Number-103/2020) against Jashim due to non-repayment of the loan. Later, on 29 January this year, the money loan court gave the verdict in the case where Jashim was asked to repay the loan with interest as he did not repay it even after restructuring.