A Dhaka court on Sunday issued arrest warrants against former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and 10 others persons in a case filed under Money Laundering Act by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Senior Special Judges’ Court of Dhaka issued the arrest warrants after accepting the charges against them for embezzling and laundering about Tk 4 crore from the Farmers Bank (now Padma Bank) in 2016.

Prior to that, the anti-graft body submitted the charge-sheet against the 11 accused, said Additional Public Prosecutor Taposh Kumar Paul.

Earlier on December 10, ACC director Benjir Ahmed pressed a charge sheet against 11 persons, including former Chief Justice SK Sinha, in the case. On December 4, the anti-graft body approved the charges against them.

The 10 others accused are former managing director of Farmers Bank KM Shamim, former senior executive vice president Gazi Salauddin, first vice-president Swapon Kumar Ray, former chairman of Farmers Bank audit committee Mahbubul Haque Chisty, first vice-president Shafiuddin Askary, vice-president Md Lutful Haque, businessman from Tangail Md Shahjahan, Niranjan Chandra Saha, Ranjit Chandra Saha and his wife Shanti Roy.

On July 10, ACC director Syed Iqbal Hossain filed the case against Sinha and 10 others with the anti-graft watchdog’s Dhaka integrated district office-1 at Segunbagicha for allegedly plundering Tk 4 crore from Farmers Bank creating fake loan documents to the names of two persons.

Later, the money was transferred to the account of SK Sinha and the amount was siphoned off.

SK Sinha sent his resignation letter to Bangabhaban on November 10, 2017 from abroad.

President Abdul Hamid accepted the resignation of Sinha on November 13, 2017. Currently, Sinha is staying in the United States.

In October 2018, the ACC revealed that it found ‘evidence’ of fraudulence, involving transactions of Tk 4 crore borrowed by two businessmen, Shahjahan and Niranjan, from Farmers Bank.

Later, the ACC started a probe into the allegation. The ACC’s probe found that the money was deposited to the bank account of SK Sinha.