Bangladesh’s first Hindu chief justice charged with graft

Dhaka: Surendra Kumar Sinha, Bangladesh’s former chief justice and the first Hindu to hold the position, has been charged by anti-graft commission for laundering about USD 475,000, nearly two years after he left the country saying he was forced to resign, according to a media report.
Sinha, who appointed 21st chief justice of the country in January 2015, was charged by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday along with 10 others for laundering money from the then Farmers Bank in 2016, The Daily Star reported.
He came under fire after the Supreme Court on August 1, 2017 released its verdict scrapping the 16th amendment to the constitution that had empowered parliament to remove judges for misconduct or incapacity.
Following the verdict, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and senior ministers came down heavily on Sinha, with many of them calling for his resignation.
On October 2, 2017, the law minister said the then chief justice would go on a month’s leave from October 3 on health grounds.
However, while leaving the country for Australia on October 13 the same year, Justice Sinha said he was not sick and was forced to resign.
After he left the country, the Supreme Court in a statement said Justice Sinha was facing 11 charges including “graft and money laundering”.
The accused in the graft case include the bank’s former MD AKM Shamim, Senior Executive Vice President and former head of Credit Division Gazi Salahuddin, First Vice President of Credit Division Swapan Kumar Roy, Senior Vice President and former branch manager Zia Uddin Ah-med, First Vice President Shafiuddin Askary and Vice President Lutful Haque.
They were charged with using fake credit papers to launder 40 million taka (USD 475,000) and transfer it to the account of Sinha.
The other accused are one Shahjahan of Tangail’s Sreehoripur village; Ranjit Chandra Saha of the dis-trict’s Jodunathpur village, his wife Santri Roy and nephew Niranjan Chandra Saha. (PTI)