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CID fails to submit report on BB reserve heist for 47th time


Published : 17 Feb 2021 09:27 PM | Updated : 18 Feb 2021 12:55 AM

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) failed to submit the report on the Bangladesh Bank’s reserve heist for the 47th time.

The case was filed over the heist of around 10.10 crore US dollars from the reserve of the state’s central bank in 2016.

Following the failure of submitting the report by the CID, a Dhaka court on Wednesday also further deferred the date for submission of the probe report over the heist from the Bangladesh Bank's reserve to March 31.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shadbir Yeasir Ahsan Chowdhury passed the order after CID’s Additional Superintendent of Police Muhammad Raihanul Islam, also the investigating officer of the case, failed to submit the report before the court.

On March 22, 2016, the then metropolitan magistrate Md Mahbubur Rahman allowed the CID to conduct forensic tests on the hard drives of three Bangladesh Bank computers. The three hard disks were seized from Bangladesh Bank after the heist occurred.

Hackers stole 10.10 crore US dollars from Bangladesh Bank’s account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February 2016. Of the stolen amount, 8.10 crore US Dollar was transferred to four accounts with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Manila of Philippines and another 2 crore US Dollar to a bank in Sri Lanka.

However, the transfer of 2 crore US Dollar to Sri Lanka failed due to a spelling error by the hackers. 

Later, the central bank of Bangladesh was able to retrieve only about 1.5 crore US Dollar from the Philippines.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Director (accounts and budgeting) Zobayer Bin Huda had filed a case with Motijheel police station on March 15, 2016, in this connection under the Money Laundering Act, Information and Communication Technology Act and the Penal Code.

Earlier, Bangladesh had requested the Philippines government for providing information, including identities of the perpetrators involved in Bangladesh Bank heist. The Philippines government also said to have assured of providing the identities and extending all other cooperation.

Bangladesh had also wanted share of the money that was fined. But the Philippines authorities replied as saying that it was done as per the Filipino law, so, they cannot do that.

Meanwhile, the CID officials said that they were about to complete the investigation in the BB reserve heist case. The CID is preparing a charge-sheet accusing at least 40 people from Bangladesh, India, Philippines, China, Sri Lanka and Japan.

Those people were found involved individually and their countries have no affiliation with the crime, they said.