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Farmers Bank Loans: MK Alamgir denies taking commission

Ruling Awami League lawmaker Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir yesterday claimed that the media reports against him over the Farmers Bank loan scam were based on imagination.

Speaking at the Jatiya Sangsad, he also denied all the allegations of his involvement in irregularities in disbursing loans from the bank when he was its chairman.

Three newspapers of Dhaka in the last three days have published false news against me with an ill motive. They said I have taken commission in disbursing loans when I was the chairman of the bank. I never heard such a lie in 77 years of my life,” he said while speaking on a point of order.

He claimed that nobody could prove that any money entered his account with the Farmers Bank from those who took loans.The newspapers mentioned that he transferred Tk 13 crore to his account from a client’s account on July 17 last year.

No such money entered my account from July 17 to the next seven to 10 days. Adding that such allegation was a “barrier to creating a healthy atmosphere in society”.

Muhiuddin also called upon Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, who was presiding over the sitting, to take necessary measures so that Bangladesh Bank could not reveal private commercial bank’s loan disbursement information before the media.

Amid widespread criticism over financial scams of Farmers Bank, established around four years ago, Muhiuddin on November 27 last year resigned from its board after the central bank had asked him to quit.

Non-performing loans at the bank increased significantly in recent months as the board continued to sanction and disburse loans in breach of the banking rules.Between September and November in 2015, the BB conducted special inspections at the commercial bank’s three branches in the city’s Gulshan, Motijheel and Shyampur, and found a gross violation of the banking rules in disbursing loans of around Tk 400 crore.Some directors of the bank were allegedly involved in sanctioning loans, violating the credit rules.