Dhaka Bank officials held for suspected involvement in Tk3.77cr anomaly

Police have detained two Dhaka Bank officials on suspicion as around Tk3.77 crore in cash went missing from the vault in the bank's Bongshal branch.

Police held Rifatul Haque, 33, in-charge (cash), and Emran Ahmmed, manager (operations) of the branch, on Thursday soon after the bank authorities lodged a complaint over the incident, said KN Niyoti Roy, assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Lalbagh zone).

Police immediately produced them before the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court under section 54 of the penal code. The court sent them to Dhaka jail, said KN Niyoti Roy.  

According to the general diary filed with the Bongshal Police Station, an audit team of the bank on Thursday found that Tk3,77,66,000 was missing from the vault and submitted a statement to the branch manager in this regard.

Abu Bakar Siddique, the branch manager, interrogated the bank officials who were responsible for taking care of the vault. At one stage, the duo confessed to misappropriating the money, the branch manager claimed in the general diary. 

Later, the bank authorities handed them over to police.  

Meanwhile, Jasimuddin Mollah, deputy commissioner of DMP (Lalbagh zone), in a media briefing on Friday said the issue of the missing money came up in an audit and the money has not been reported stolen or robbed from the branch physically. So, another agency may look into the matter. Such incidents are considered under section 409 of the penal code – which authorises the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for inquiry and investigation. 

However, an officer of the Lalbagh Division police told TBS during primary investigation the detained bank officials confessed that they invested the money into gambling. 

The Dhaka Bank Limited managing director, the branch manager and the bank's public relation officer did not respond to this correspondent's calls for comments. 

Our correspondent visited Dhaka Bank's Bongshal Branch on Friday, but found its gate padlocked as it was the weekly holiday. 

However, he found a group of people gathered in front of the branch. They claimed they have deposited money with the branches and came to know about their deposited money.

Kazi Md Khaled, a paper merchant at Nayabazar, said he rushed to the bank when he came to know that crores of taka were missing from the branch's vault. 

Shafayet, a security guard of an adjacent building, said he noticed nothing unusual while he was on duty in the last few days, but people suddenly gathered in front of the bank on Friday morning. 

Arif Sadek, public relation officer of the ACC, told The Business Standard that the senior ACC officials will decide whether to investigate the matter or not. 

"I cannot say right now what will happen regarding the incident. Deciding whether a case will be filed or not is a matter of time," he added.