Allegations are available that Tk 11 lakh have disappeared from the bank account of the wife of a South Korean expatriate in Gopalganj.
Sanjay Biswas, son of Santosh Biswas of Golabaria village of Durgapur Union in Gopalganj Sadar Upazila went to South Korea officially on August 3, 2022.
Before going to Korea, his wife Sheela opened a savings account in the name of Rani Biswas at Rupali Bank Ltd, Gopalganj Corporate Branch. Account No- 1131010018226.
Expatriate Sanjay Biswas sent monthly remittances from South Korea to the said account number. Every month after depositing the remittance money, SMS was sent from the bank to Sheela Rani's own mobile phone, but despite receiving the SMS correctly for three months, the SMS stopped coming due to unknown reasons the following months. Assistant General Manager (Branch Head) of the bank, SM Wahiduzzaman Reg: No. 9618, kept wasting time on various excuses to explain the reason for the SMS stoppage and asking for a print copy of the transaction.
In this situation, suddenly on 14/01/2024, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) called Sheela Rani from Gopalganj regional office and summoned her to the office. When she appeared there, Assistant Director of ACC Bijan Kumar Sheela wanted to know about unusual transactions in Rani's account number. Then Sheela Rani said, “My husband sends money to Bangladesh every month from South Korea and from there I withdraw the necessary amount of money for family expenses. I don't know anything else”.
Later, when Rupali Bank, Gopalganj Corporate Branch Assistant General Manager SM Wahiduzzaman was asked about the transaction, he said that senior officer of this branch, Kaushik Bhakta (Reg: No-13422) transferred over Tk 60 lakh from 9 savings accounts of different customers of the branch through cheque transfer and RTGS using the ID number and Pass Word of officer Most Mukti Khatun (Regd No 16958) of this branch to different account numbers adopting various means. He also said that the bank authorities have made a general diary on 29/08/2023 to bring those involved including Kaushik Bhakta under the law. General Diary No- 1521.
When Kaushik was asked about the withdrawal of Tk 11 lakh from Sheela Rani's account number on the mobile phone of the account holder, he consoled her saying, "Didi, everything will be fine, we will fix it”. But even after 7 months till date, Rupali Bank, Gopalganj corporate branch, could not give any solution regarding recovery of money.
Another victim Krishna Pandey said, “I had Tk 20 thousand in the bank. But at the time of withdrawal, they wrote 2 lakh instead of 20,000 and gave me only 19,000. When the manager was asked about the offence of money laundering, he said, “We have audited the issue and it will be resolved soon.
In this situation, victims Sheela Rani Biswas, Krishna Pandey and Sonamani Sarkar said, “We seek immediate intervention of honuorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to bring the culprits under the purview of law and exemplary punishment to the culprit and get the money back”.