Bagerhat: A case has been filed against a senior official of Bagerhat district branch of Sonali Bank (SB) Limited on charge of embezzling Tk3.5 crore in the name of loan distribution.

Police sources said Sheikh Mahfuzur Rahman, a senior official of the branch, has been made accused in the case filed by its newly appointed manager Khan Bablur Rahman with Bagerhat Model Police Station on Thursday.

The case will be transferred to Anti-Corruption Commission, Khulna for further investigation, the police sources added.

According to the case statement, Mahfuzur Rahman, who was responsible for loan distribution, embezzled Tk3,44,89,610 from 110 bank accounts by using fake signatures of the customers from 2 August 2012 till 3 September 2015.

As the fact came to light, Marjina Begum, mother of the accused bank officer, returned Tk35 lakh to the branch on behalf of his son in several phases.

On 25 August, a three-member audit team of the branch started its internal audit operation and they came to know of the incident of a huge amount of money having been embezzled from the branch.

When the audit team asked Sheikh Mahfuzur Rahman to show documents against the loan money, he disappeared without trace citing death of one of his relatives on September 3 and till date he has remained traceless.

Later, a five-member special audit team reached the Bagerhat branch from Sonali Bank head office started investigation into the loan scam during three years’ job of the senior official, Sheikh Mahfuzur Rahman Babu, at the branch.

Besides, a three-member probe committee, headed by Sonali Bank’s Khulna regional branch assistant general manager M Shahjahan Ali, was formed to carry out another investigation in this regard.  

During the investigation, the probe committee found that Mahfuzur Rahman embezzled the money by making fake over draft (OD) loan from 110 accounts, said the chief of the probe committee, Shahjahan Ali, assistant general manager of Sonali Bank’s Khulna regional branch.

However, Ashutosh Mondol, assistant general manager of Bagerhat regional office of Sonali Bank, said the bank authorities had served several notices to the ‘absconding’ bank official but he did not give any reply.

Meanwhile, Debabrata Biswas, manager of the branch, and Kazi Mahmuda Siddiqua, an official of the bank, were withdrawn from the branch for the sake of proper investigation.

Bank sources said Sheikh Mahfuzur Rahman, son of Anisur Rahman of Mukkhait village in sadar upazila, and a resident of Sarui area in Bagerhat district, had been involved in misappropriating money from the branch for the last three years and during his service here three managers were appointed for the branch.  

The authorities concerned of the bank also blamed the three former managers for the fraudulence as they showed negligence in duty.