Sunday, April 24, 2011

BD-Thai sues stock crash probe chief

Dhaka, April 25: BD-Thai Aluminium Ltd yesterday filed an appeal with a Dhaka court seeking scrapping of a part of the stockmarket scam probe report that accuses the company of siphoning off Tk 15 crore.

The aluminium products manufacturer also served a legal notice upon the probe committee asking them to pay Tk 100 crore in compensation for making "false" and "fabricated" statements about the company.

It termed the allegations "false, fabricated and unfounded" and requested the court to summon eight people including Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled, head of the stockmarket scam probe team, to explain the claims.

After hearing the appeal filed in the form of a case, Judge Aftabuzzaman of the Court of Second Assistant Judge, Dhaka asked Ibrahim Khaled and seven others to appear before it on June 12.

Advocate Abdus Selim Miah, law officer of the company, filed the case.

Ibrahim Khaled, chairman of Bangladesh Krishi Bank, submitted the stockmarket probe report to the finance minister on April 7.

He later told the media that they found evidence of BD-Thai siphoning off Tk 15 crore from the share market.

His statement appeared on different national dailies and tarnished the image of the company, BD-Thai said.

The eight defendants include the three other members of the probe committee -- Mohammad Abdul Bari, former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh; Toufic A Choudhury, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management; and Nihad Kabir, a Supreme Court lawyer.

The other defendants are the chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission, the director general of Foreign Commerce Control Department of Bangladesh Bank, the managing director of City Bank, and the chief executive officer of Dhaka Stock Exchange.

The legal notice of the company states that Khaled, a former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, in an interview with ATN Bangla TV channel said the committee got evidence of siphoning off Tk 15 crore by Gem Global in collusion with BD-Thai.

The interview was aired on April 7 and 8, it added.

BD-Thai also asked the members of the probe committee, which implicated top politicians and businessmen, to send a written apology to the company within 15 days for making the statements in their probe report.

In default, the company will file a suit for compensation of Tk 100 crore for making defamatory statements, the notice added.

AQM Sohel Rana, a lawyer of Dr Hamid and Associates, served the legal notice on behalf of BD-Thai, saying the interview of Ibrahim Khaled was mala fide, untrue, defamatory, and biased and damaged the social and business reputation of his client.

BD-Thai is one of the largest manufacturers of anodised and powder coated aluminium profiles, doors, windows, and curtain walls and allied items in Bangladesh.

Its share traded at Tk 875, down by 3.07 percent, on Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.

Source: The Daily Star