Former army chief and chairman of Destiny Group Mohammad Harun-Ar-Rashid, who was jailed for four years in a corruption case, was granted bail for six months from the High Court in the case filed over embezzling customers’ investment.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat granted the bail on Tuesday (30 August).
Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik confirmed the matter.
On May 12, a Dhaka court sentenced Mohammed Harun-Ar-Rashid to four years’ imprisonment, while Managing Director of the Destiny Group Rafiqul Amin was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in the case over embezzlement and laundering Tk 1,861 crore.
Mohammad Hossain of Destiny Group was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and fined Tk 1.5 crore, while the group’s vice-presidents Mohammad Gofranul Haque, Mohammad Saidur Rahman and Mezbah Uddin Swapan were given a 10-year sentence.
Forty-six people were made accused in the case. Among them, Lt Col (Retd) Didarul Alam, Jesmine Akter Milon, Ziaul Huq Molla and Saiful Islam Rubel are now on bail, while Rafiqul Amin and chairman Mohammad Hossain are in jail. The rest 39 accused including Rafiqul Amin's wife Farah Diba are absconding.
Rafiqul Amin, Mohammad Hossain and Lt Col (Retd) Didarul Alam have been in jail for the last 10 years.
On July 31 in 2012, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed two separate cases with Kalabagan police station in Dhaka against Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society and Destiny Tree Plantation Limited on charge of embezzlement and laundering more than Tk 4,119 crore. 22 officials of Destiny were accused in the case.
After two years of investigation, ACC on May 4 in 2014 submitted charge-sheets against 19 and 46 suspects in the cases. Some 12 accused, including Rafiqul Amin, were indicted in both the cases. Two ACC investigators Mozahar Ali Sarder and Toufiqul Islam submitted the charge sheets.
Recording of witness testimony is still going on in the tree plantation case.
The national graft buster in the charge-sheet of the Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society case noted that the accused cheated more than 8.5 lakh investors from July 2009 to June 2012.
During this period, the accused collected more than Tk 1901 crore from the investors in the name of lending services, investment to non-profit organisations and opening new companies. From the deposits by the investors, the accused misappropriated more than Tk 1,861 crore in the name of dividend, honorarium, salary and allowances.
According to the confessional statements to court by Destiny’s top officials, Destiny 2000 Ltd. was struggling with the sales and was on the verge of collapse. In 2005, some 22 officials of Destiny Group formed the multilevel marketing company ‘Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited’ to avert the business catastrophe.
The multilevel marketing company collected more than Tk 1,900 crore from investors with offers of fictitious profit. Destiny 2000 Ltd. subsequently teamed up with the multilevel marketing company, and a large chunk of the multilevel marketing company's capital was transferred to several ventures under the Destiny 2000 Ltd.
Now the Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited has only Tk 50 lakh in its frozen bank account.