By Kashem Mahmud

DHAKA, May 7, 2025 (BSS) – Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC (IBBPLC) has taken initiative to put on auction a mortgaged business entity of fugitive S Alam’s business partners Ansarul Alam Chowdhury and Ziaul Kabir Chowdhury to recover its Tk 1468 crore debt.

“We have taken steps to put on auction the mortgaged property-Inherent Trading and Impex Limited owned by Ansarul Alam Chowdhury and Ziaul Kabir Chowdhury to recover unpaid loans of Tk 1,468 crore,” said IBBPLC’s Chaktai branch manager Zakir Hossain.

He said the bank management has also taken legal measures to recover the loan amount as well as interest through selling the mortgaged property.

According to the loan details, Ansarul and Ziaul took loan of Tk 1,330 crore from Chaktai branch of IBBPLC, Chattogram in 2021 against their business entity Inherent Trading and Impex Limited, located at 280/3 Asadganj, Chattogram. The total amount of the loan and interest has stood at Tk 14,673,871,040 till April, 2025.

Ansarul Alam Chowdhury, managing director of Inherent Trading and Impex Limited, is a cousin of Saiful Alam Masud of the S Alam Group. Ziaul Alam Chowdhury is chairman of Inherent Trading and Impex Limited.

They borrowed the loan to build a factory at Ichanagar on the south bank of Karnaphuli River and import machinery to supply essentials such as oil, sugar and other products in the country.

To get the loan, they submitted trading slips, provided by S Alam Group, of oil, sugar and other products to the bank as evidence, sources said.

Later, when Islami Bank came under the control of Saiful Alam Masud, the loan documents were prepared as per Masud’s instructions and submitted to the bank’s head-office, which was approved at the board meeting later.

Branch manager Zakir Hossain said Ansarul Alam Chowdhury and Ziaul Alam Chowdhury kept 51 plots at Tejturi Bazar Mouza of Dhaka, 10 plots at Uttara area under Dhaka North City Corporation, 12.04 acres of land at Ichanagar project area of ??Karnaphuli Mouza in Chattogram, 94.44 decimal land at Firingibazar area in ??Chattogram mortgage with the branch.

The Islami Bank authorities published a notice in the newspaper to recover money by auctioning these lands and plots. The last day for submitting the tender against the auction is May 22.

However, bank sources said that it would be possible to recover an amount ranging from Tk 600 to Tk 700 by selling these mortgaged assets.

“In this case, if bidders are not found for the expected amounts. The bank authorities will consider next steps. If any other property of the borrowers is found in other places, the bank will take steps to recover arrears through the court order,” Zakir said.

“There are not only cases against them under the Money Laundering Act but also allegations for   taking hundreds of crore taka from various banks as loan,” he said.

According to bank sources, on November 3, 2022, Ansarul opened an account with Janata Bank as corrugated iron importer.

Later, Ansarul took Tk 340 crore as loan from Janata Bank’s Agraban branch showing fixed deposit receipt (FDR) made with several branches of First Security Islami Bank and Union Bank controlled by S Alam.