The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has sent a letter to the Bangladesh Bank Governor seeking personal and loan related information of 17 central bank officials on charge of their connection in sanctioning Tk 3,300 crore of loans from different branches of Islami Bank in Chattogram.

The letter, signed by the ACC deputy director Md Yasir, was sent on early Thursday afternoon seeking the information.

A complaint submitted to the ACC stated that the money was embezzled through forgery by Golam Sarwar Chowdhury, proprietor of Messrs Murad Enterprise, and other business groups of Chittagong, sources at the ACC said.

A three-member team led by ACC head office`s deputy director Md Yasir Arafat has been investigating the complaint. The letter seeking information about 17 central bank officials has already been sent to the Bangladesh Bank Governor.

The letter requested the BB Governor to send the attested copies of national identity (NID) cards and passports of those 17 officials.

Besides, information was sought about the rationality of the roles of Bangladesh Bank officials regarding the loan monitoring of Messrs Murad Enterprise, a client of Chaktai Branch of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL); Messrs United Super Traders of Jubilee Road Branch of IBBL; and Century Food Products, a client of Khatunganj Branch of IBBL.

The letter further said that the officials were summoned at the ACC headquarters for questioning on November 11 last. As they did not appear at the ACC on that day, they were requested to take necessary steps for submitting records related to the monitoring of loans and their written statements.

The 17 officials are Bangladesh Bank Chattogram Office`s Inspection Department`s deputy director Md Zubayer Hossain, deputy director Khorshedul Alam, Rubel Chowdhury, Debashish Biswas, Muhammad Ziauddin Bablu, joint director Sunirban Barua, Anik Talukder, Kol Hossain, Syed Md Arif-un-Nabi, additional directors Salma Begum, Shankar Kanti Ghosh, Mohammad Anwar Hossain and Md Shoaib Chowdhury; and Bangladesh Bank Dhaka Office`s additional director Md Abdur Rouf, deputy director Lenin Azad Polash, inspection team leader amd additional director Md Manzur Hossain Khan.

According to the letter sent to the central bank officials earlier, Golam Sarwar Chowdhury, proprietor of Messrs Murad Enterprise and customer of Islami Bank`s Chaktai branch; United Super Traders, customer of the Jubilee Road branch; Century Food Products, a customer of the Khatunganj branch; and others embezzled money from the bank in the name of loans.

These businesses took around Tk 3,300 crore loan from the Islami Bank branches which was later funnelled to S Alam Group and his associates, according to an ACC source.