TDS Desk

Janata Bank PLC has filed a loan default case against S Alam Group, the controversial and prominent business conglomerate in the country, as two of its companies have failed to repay Tk10,000 crore they took as loans.

The bank filed the case on December 1, confirmed Rezaul Karim, bench assistant of the Money Loan Court in Chattogram.

“The hearing in the Tk 2,000-crore case Janata Bank filed against S Alam Group is ongoing,” he told this correspondent at around 12:30pm.

In the past, kins and companies of the S Alam Group took loans worth approximately Tk10,000 crore from two branches of Janata Bank in Chattogram under various names.

Due to the group’s failure to repay the loans on time, Janata Bank’s General Insurance Branch has already auctioned off the group’s assets.

Earlier, S Alam Group, along with its relatives, secured substantial loans from Janata Bank’s Sadharan Bima branch over 14 years. Starting in 2010, just a year after the Awami League assumed power, the group obtained nearly Tk9,700 crore in loans, with an additional Tk1,020 crore granted to its relatives, according to branch officials.

By 2015, the maximum loan amount extended to S Alam was Tk2,000 crore. However, following the Awami League’s victory in the 2014 elections, the branch has issued at least Tk7,000crore more in loans over the past nine years, reportedly under the influence of senior officials.

These loans were obtained under the names of S Alam Refined Sugar, S Alam Trading Company, S Alam Vegetable Oil, S Alam Super Edible Oil, S Alam Cold Rolled Steels Ltd, and other subsidiaries.