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News Desk

The Daily Star

Publication Date : 20-02-2013

Jasmine Islam, chairman of controversial business firm Hall-Mark Group, was sent to jail by a Dhaka court on Tuesday, hours after she admitted to her connection with 11 corruption cases.

She sought bail in the court, but Metropolitan Magistrate Joynab Begum denied her bail.

On Sunday, Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Mohammad Zahirul Haque had cancelled Islam's bail and asked her to surrender before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court (CMM) of Dhaka within three days.

The same court on February 7 had granted her bail on condition that she and her company would repay 26 billion Bangladeshi taka (US$323.8 million) she and her associates had swindled off of Bangladesh's Sonali Bank.

The High Court on Monday asked law enforcers to arrest Islam, wife of the company's Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud, if she did not surrender to the CMM court within two days as per the trial court order.

It also directed the government not to let her leave the country.

The Anti-Corruption Commission on October 4 last year had filed the cases against 27 top officials of the state-owned Sonali Bank and Hall-Mark Group for swindling 26 billion Bangladeshi taka.

According to a Bangladesh Bank investigation, Hall-Mark in connivance with some bank officials had pocketed the amount from the Ruposhi Bangla branch of Sonali Bank against forged documents.

US$1=80.2 Bangladeshi taka