A Dhaka court today granted bail to Sherpur District BNP Vice-President Md Hazrat Ali in a case filed on charges of embezzling Tk 69.58 crore from Farmers Bank Ltd.

Hazrat, also managing director of M/S Roseburg Auto Rice Mills Ltd, however, can't walk out of jail as other corruption cases against him are pending with different courts in Sherpur and Dhaka, said an official of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Metropolitan Magistrate Debdash Chandra Adhikary passed the order rejecting the prosecution plea for adjournment after Hazrat's lawyer moved a petition seeking bail in the case.

ACC Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hosaain Kajol submitted a petition seeking adjournment of the hearing as he was sick. But the magistrate dismissed his plea and issued the bail order on grounds that Hazrat has been languishing in jail for a long time and the investigation officer failed to submit any probe report, the magistrate added.

On April 29 last year, the anti-graft body's assistant director M Sirajul Haque filed the case with Gulshan Police Station against seven people, including former Farmers Bank Audit Committee Chairman Mahbubul Haque Chisty and Hazrat Ali.

The other accused are the company's director Delowar Hossain, former Farmers Bank Sherpur branch chief Uttam Barua, former additional managing director of the bank AMM Shamim, former senior executive vice president Faysal Ahsan Chowdhury and city survey limited managing director Khairul Alam.

According to the FIR, the accused, in collusion with each other, siphoned off Tk 58 crore from Farmers Bank Limited abusing their loan disbursing powers and violating rules of bank. They embezzled the money through transferring it to different accounts. The money now stands at Tk 69.58 crore with interest.

The incident took place between June 26, 2014 and September 19, 2018.