What happened around 12,000 loads of gold in cooperative bank
September 30, 20243 Mins Read
Jumbangla Desk: After the Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD) Advisor of the Interim Government of Bangladesh, AF Hasan Arif, said that 12,000 gold bars of Cooperative Bank could not be found, there are various discussions on the social media. BBC news.

Gold

He disclosed this while addressing the annual planning conference of Bangladesh Rural Development Academy (BARD) at Kotbari, Comilla on Sunday (September 29). Ever since then, curiosity spread about how the bank's gold disappeared.

Officials of the bank, however, said that the incident was three years ago and about 8000 gold was taken by fake customers with the connivance of some officials. Later, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed a case in this incident, which is still under trial.

Acting General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the bank. Ahsanul Goni said that a bank gang was involved in the incident and they have been identified through investigation.

Incidentally, Co-operative Bank is basically a specialized bank. It acts as a banking institution providing finance to the cooperative sector as per the provisions of the Cooperatives Act. It can provide loans to individuals as well as cooperative societies.

LGRD Adviser AF Hasan Arif said many properties of the Co-operative Bank have been dispossessed. Those who were once in the bank have occupied them, he said.

Soon after his speech, the matter spread in media and social media. Many people became curious about the matter considering the new information.

When contacted later, the bank's officials confirmed to BBC Bangla that the incident was in 2020 and that the ACC had filed a case against eight officials of the bank for their involvement in the incident, which is now pending in court.

Talking to the bank officials, it is said that after the incident came to light, ACC was informed by the bank and they started an investigation.

After the investigation, a deputy director of the organization filed a case against nine people including the then chairman in February 2021. Five people were then arrested.

It was alleged in the case that these persons tried to embezzle 7,398 full 11 annas of gold mortgaged by 2,316 customers from the bank, whose market value at that time was Tk.

In this, they embezzled about eleven and a half crores of gold by pretending to be fake customers. This case is still ongoing.

According to the information provided by the officials, the members of a cooperative society named Narayanganj Cooperative Credit Society had taken a loan of about twelve thousand Bhari gold in the bank.

At some point, the cooperative society went bankrupt. In between, the corona epidemic came. Due to non-payment of loans on time, the bank decided to auction the gold.

"The bank then said that the members of the society can take the deposited gold subject to repayment of the loan if they want. Some dishonest officials took this opportunity. They pretended to be a member of the association and made fake receipts and deposited the money taken as a loan and withdrew the gold," said Acting General Manager Ahsanul Gani.

Because the market price of gold is very high, fake people made a profit by taking gold by paying off the loan, said Mr. Math.

"ACC kept the names of the others except the former chairman in the final charge sheet of the case. The persons named in the charge sheet are now on bail. But the case is pending,” he said.

That is, what happened with the gold of that bank is that the members of Narayanganj Cooperative Credit Society took the loan by mortgaging the gold.

Later, a group of people made fake receipts and papers in the same name and with the connivance of the officials returned the loan money and withdrew the gold. The incident came to light in the bank after about 8,000 deposits were withdrawn.

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"They gave the money they borrowed against the name to the bank. But those who did it in these names were fake,” said the acting general manager of the bank.