Delwar Kabir from Jhenaidah:

The allegation brought by an account holder of Sonali Bank’s Magura Branch in Jhenaidah district against the bank officials over withdrawing Tk 87 lakh from his account is termed as baseless and intentional by the concerned officials. The bank officials claimed that, they have not involvement with the cheques’ forgery.

The bank authorities demanded the account holder might have brought such allegation being instigated by someone or from any ill motive.

The bank authorities in a statement clarified that, the complainant Md. Titul Mian, also Chairman of Usha SC Limited in Magura opened a current account which no. is 201835 (automated no. 2414200018352) with Sonali Bank’s Magura Branch on August 12, 2013.

During the period, he was provided a manual cheque book with 100 pages (SL no from 7781901 to 7782000) for his transaction facilities. Later, the account holder transacted money through the account by several cheques in several times.

At one stage on August 17 last, the account holder submitted a written complaint saying that, about Tk 87 lakh was withdrawn from his account by fraudulent in collaboration with some unscrupulous bank officials without his knowledge.

The bank officials claimed that, the mentioned amount of money were withdrawn from the bank’s account through eight cheques signed by the account holder in a span of time from February 25, 2016 to June 26, 2019.

The cheque carriers were not else others, they were business partner of the account holder Titul Mian.

As the signatures of account holder and carriers were seemed correct, the bank was compelled to pay the money to the carriers. So, there is no fault of bank authorities, they said.

Firoj Hossain, one of the complainant’s business partners said, “The cheques, which were provided to the bank for withdrawal of money, were signed by the cheque holder Titul. The carriers withdrew the money on behalf of the cheque holder. So, the bank officials were not responsible for it.”

Didarul Alam, AGM of Sonali Bank’s Magura Branch said, “There is no involvement of Sonali Bank’s Magura Branch officials in cheques’ forgery. The account holder did not provide any contact number for queries when he opened the account. Therefore, it was not possible to contact with him even after making several efforts for his clearance over the cheques and signing. However, the bank was bound to pay the money to the cheques’ carriers as per rule. So, there is no fault of the bank authorities or officials. However, the incident is now under investigation.”

This correspondent tried to contact with the complainant account holder Titul over three cell phone numbers. But, it was not possible to reach him for his comment.

On the other hand, this correspondent went to visit his permanent address at 57 Shaheed Mintu Road in Islampur Para of Magura to know details about the allegation. But, he was not found there. Even, no one was able to provide any information about his current location.