Islami Bank officials sucked Tk 1.33 cr from a deceased customers’ account

Staff Correspondent: Mohammad Saeed, a customer of Islami Bank’s Kakrail branch, died on January 2, 2020. At that time, his bank deposits were Tk 1 crore 33 lakh 73 thousand 835. After eight months of Saeed’s death, a person named Ramzan Ali applied to connect the new mobile number as the bank by hiding the information and forging his signature.
He is a security guard at Kakrail branch of Islami Bank. Without verifying his application, Ramzan’s mobile phone number was added as the bank account of deceased Saeed. Then between October 28, 2021 and November 3, 2022, Ramzan Ali withdrew Tk 1 crore 33 lakh 1 thousand 200 using Islami Bank’s ‘Selfin’ app.
On May 11, Islami Bank authorities filed a case against Ramzan in connection with the embezzlement of the money of the dead customer of the bank through fraud. A month later, Ramzan was arrested by the police. He later narrated the details of the incident in his confessional statement in court.
It is revealed in his statement that he committed this fraud with the advice and cooperation of some officials of Islami Bank. Based on the information provided by Ramzan, senior principal officer Aliullahof Kakrail branch of Islami Bank on July 3 was arrested by the police.
Officer in charge of Paltan Police Station Salahuddin Mia said Islami Bank’s security guard Ramzan told the court that the bank’s official Aliullah and two others were directly involved in embezzling the money of the dead customer through fraud. Aliullah himself took Tk 50 lakh. Another bank official also took Tk 50 lakh. Ramzan took the remaining Tk 33 lakh.
OC Salahuddin said, another bank official involved in this fraud is absconding. Efforts are on to arrest him.
According to the information in the case documents and talking to the police officers involved in the investigation, the customer of Islami Bank, Mohammad Saeed, died, it was mentioned as his bank. Arrested bank officer Aliullah knew the information about the deposit of more than Tk 1.33 crore in the deceased’s bank account. Later, the accused along with Aliullah planned to embezzle the customer’s money.
The investigating officer of the case, Deputy Inspector (SI) of Paltan police station, Thoi Chanu Marma, told that Aliullah and another bank official bought a mobile phone sim from Ramzan, the bank’s security guard. Ramzan requested to connect that mobile number. After getting the information about the death of the customer Saeed, two officials including the bank official Aliullah accepted Ramzan’s application.
Then Ramzan registered on Islami Bank’s Selfin app. Then the deceased started withdrawing money from Saeed’s bank account. Complete details of how much money Ramazan withdrew from Saeed’s bank account have been found.
According to the documents of the case, a security guard of the bank has been withdrawing crores of taka from the dead customer for more than a year, but the matter came to light last March. Then on March 6, security guard Ramzan Islami gave a written application to the bank authorities.
Ramzan said that he was the one who forged the signature of deceased Saeed and withdrew the money using Selfin app. With that money he bought 15 cows and land. He wasted the remaining money by gambling.
The concerned police officials believe that this application was given to Ramzan in collusion. Salahuddin Mia, OC of Paltan police station, said that the responsibility of embezzling the money of the dead customer was being imposed only on the security guard. Because of that, only the security guard was accused in the case filed by the bank.
But during the investigation, it was found that the bank authorities have withdrawn the bank official Aliullah and another bank official from the concerned branch on the charge of embezzling the money of the deceased customer.
Roni Babu, the plaintiff in the case and former principal officer of Islam Bank, was called for a statement on the matter and it was found to be switched off.
Abdul Wahab, the witness and Assistant Vice President (AVP) of Islami Bank, said that the police have seized several documents from Islami Bank’s Kakrail branch in connection with the embezzlement of the bank’s deceased Saeed’s money. Another witness in the seizure list, Tariqul Monir, officer of Kakrail branch of Islami Bank, also said that the bank account opening form and mobile number change documents of the deceased Saeed were also handed over to the police.
Thoi Chanu Marma, investigating officer of the case, said that an organized gang had withdrawn money from the bank account of the deceased Saeed. Bank security guard Ramzan was used in this case. Everyone involved in this fraud except Ramzan and Aliullah will be brought to justice.