Former land minister Saifuzzaman among six jailed for five months in loan default case
A Chattogram court has sentenced former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed and five others to five months in prison each in a loan default case involving Tk 276.75 crore. Judge Helal Uddin of the Chattogram Artha Rin Adalat passed the order on Sunday.
The other convicts are Javed's wife Rukmina Zaman, S M Alamgir Chowdhury, Khorshedul Alam, Habib Ullah and Safiqul Islam. Md Saifuddin Parvez, a court official of the Artha Rin Adalat, confirmed the information.
He said the bank's lawyer applied on Sunday seeking punishment for the defaulters in the money loan execution case, after they had taken loans from the bank and failed to repay them. After the hearing, the court sentenced all six to five months each.
As the convicts are absconding, the court has issued arrest warrants against them.
Court sources said the loan was taken in the name of Aramit Cement, the former minister's family business, from the Agrabad branch of IFIC Bank, and was never repaid. The bank filed a money suit in court in 2025 over the default.
In that case, the court issued a decree of Tk 258.21 crore on December 1 this year. As the decreed amount was not paid within 60 days, the bank filed a money loan execution case in July to recover the dues.
With no mortgaged assets against the loan, it was not possible to recover the money by selling assets at auction. The bank argued that the six defaulters showed no interest in repaying the money, and sought their punishment from the court.
After Sunday's hearing, the court sentenced each of them to five months in prison under Section 34 of the Artha Rin Adalat Ain 2003.
