In its suit, International Finance Investment and Commerce (IFIC) Bank Ltd claimed Beximco Holdings and the four of its directors have failed to pay back Tk 137.78-crore default loan even after rescheduling arrangements and solicited the Dhaka Bankruptcy Court to declare them bankrupt.

Besides Beximco Holdings, its Chairman and Managing Director A S F Rahman, Vice-chairman and Director Salman F Rahman, and directors Iqbal Ahmed and M A Qasem are accused in the case.

The bank has requested the court to appoint a receiver to take over and sell the debtors' assets and also to detain them in prison if and until the debt remains unmet.

After hearing, the court passed an order for the defendants to appear before it in the next hearing of the case on August 15.

In the petition, the plaintiff said Beximco Group through 112 accounts in fictitious names kept with IFIC Bank's Motijheel and Moulvibazar branches in the capital availed of Tk 118 crore in loans. The bank approached the authorities of Beximco Group several times in vain.

However, on pressure from the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the board of Beximco Investment Company, now Beximco Holdings, at a meeting on December 12, 1993 took responsibility of the outstanding dues and resolved that, on behalf of the company, the four directors would guarantee repayment of the debt liabilities.

On appeal for rescheduling and offer of securities belonging to one of the group's subsidiaries, Beximco Property Development and Management Ltd, IFIC Bank in consultation with and approval of the central bank rescheduled payment of the loans in 1998 on certain conditions.

According to the rescheduling agreement, Beximco Holdings was required to pay back Tk 1 crore every month from January 1998 to December 2000. The monthly repayment installment was fixed at Tk 2 crore for the period between January 2001 and December 2002, and at Tk 4 crore between January 2003 and December 2004.

The defaulters paid back Tk 13 crore between January 1998 and January 1999, Tk 1 crore monthly from February 1999 to December 2000 and Tk 2 crore a month since January 2001 to January 2002. The company then stopped repayment except a single instalment of Tk 40 lakh on April 29, 2002.

IFIC again took the issue to the central bank and Beximco once again appealed for rescheduling, which the BB rejected.

IFIC in several letters requested the defendants to repay the loans, with no response from them. The bank on April 18 last served legal notice on the company and the four guarantors of the default loans giving them three-month time to repay the Tk 137-crore outstanding debt.

The deadline of the legal notice expired on July 18. IFIC then lodged the case under the Bankruptcy Act 1997.

When contacted yesterday, A S F Rahman told The Daily Star his lawyer would take appropriate legal measures on the issue. He refused to make further comments on the case and advised to talk to his lawyer and public relations officers. But, they could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.