Transcom Group Chairman Shahnaz Rahman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Simeen Rahman and four others were discharged today from a fraud case filed by the CEO’s sister.
With this, Simeen, Shahnaz and other top officials of Transcom Group have been cleared in four cases in total.
Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman passed the order following two discharge petitions filed by the defence, said Simeen’s lawyer Mohammad Siddique Ullah Miah.
The court order stated that the accused were discharged as there was no substance to frame charges against them.
The four other accused in the case are Transcom Group top officials Kamrul Hassan, Mohammad Mosaddaque and Abu Yusuf Md Siddik, and stamp vendor Shamsuzzaman Patwari.
Advocate Siddique said, “Today a hearing was held on the charge sheet submitted in the case. The investigator failed to provide any specific evidence in the charge sheet. Despite this, allegedly influenced by the complainant, the investigator submitted the charge sheet to the court. So, the court reprimanded the officer in this regard.”
He further said that necessary steps would be taken to initiate departmental action against the officer for submitting a "false charge sheet".
“The complainant, Shahzreh Huq, had filed four false cases against her elder sister. With today’s order discharging six individuals, there are now no pending cases against Simeen Rahman,” he added.
According to the lawyers, Shahzreh Huq filed the case with Gulshan Police Station on February 22, 2024. Following an investigation, PBI Inspector Syed Sajedur Rahman submitted the charge sheet to the court on January 11 this year, accusing six individuals, including Simeen.
During today’s hearing, defence lawyers argued that in the share transfer forgery case, the charge sheet was submitted without recovering the share transfer deed Form-117 or conducting any expert examination. The charge sheet was filed considering some stamps printed in 2023 as affidavits regarding the transfer of shares in the case. However, the shares in dispute had been fully transferred in 2020 and accepted by the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) in the same year. Therefore, stamps supplied in 2023 could not possibly have been used earlier, making their use before printing impossible. Finding no substance to frame charges, the court discharged the accused in the case.
Latifur Rahman was the founding chairman and CEO of Transcom Limited. He executed a deed of settlement on June 12, 2020, regarding the future management of the company and the distribution of his personal shares after his death. In addition to Latifur, all family members -- his wife Shahnaz Rahman, eldest daughter Simeen Rahman, younger daughter Shahzreh Huq and son Arshad Waliur Rahman -- signed the deed, agreeing to all its terms. It was later approved at a board meeting.
Following the execution of the deed, Latifur signed share transfer Form-117 issued by the RJSC and transferred 14,160 of his 23,600 shares in Transcom Limited to Simeen, 4,720 shares to Shahzreh, and 4,720 shares to Arshad. Later, when the Form-117s were submitted to the RJSC, the RJSC updated the shares as usual and issued Schedule-X containing the number of shares to the shareholders.
Latifur passed away on July 1, 2020. For nearly four years after his death, the company continued to operate smoothly. In the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 tax years, his offspring also declared in their personal income tax returns the shares transferred to them from the total of 23,600 shares.
Nearly four years after Latifur’s death, on February 22, 2024, Shahzreh filed three cases with Gulshan Police Station against Simeen, who was then leading the company, and their mother, while they were in Singapore for medical treatment. These were registered all under similar allegations and sections. As a result of these cases, Simeen and her mother faced restrictions on entering Bangladesh and filed a writ petition in the High Court, which allowed them to return on March 21, 2024. Allegedly to obstruct Simeen’s return, Shahzreh also filed a murder case with the same police station on March 22, 2024, centring the natural death of Arshad, which had occurred nine months earlier. The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) investigated the murder case and, finding no evidence, submitted a final report. The court later accepted it and exempted the accused.
All four cases were investigated by the PBI. In one case, it was alleged that after Latifur’s death, his wife Shahnaz -- as nominee -- withdrew his money and bought 9,000 shares of Transcom Electronics Limited. After investigation, the PBI found no irregularities in the withdrawal or the purchase of the 9,000 shares and submitted a final report, which the court later accepted, exempting the accused.
In another case, filed on the allegation that the deed of settlement executed by Latifur had been created through forgery, the investigator seized the deed and documents of the meeting at which it was approved and had them examined by experts at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). According to the expert opinion, the signatures of Latifur, Arshad, and even the complainant Shahzreh on the deed of settlement and the board meeting documents were found to be genuine. Based on this, the PBI submitted a final report, which the court accepted and exempted the accused.
