Online Desk  :  A Dhaka court has issued an arrest warrant against cricketer and former Magura-2 MP Shakib Al Hasan and one other over an IFIC Bank cheque fraud case. Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ziadur Rahman issued the order on Sunday. The court also issued an arrest warrant for Gazi Shahagir Hossain, the managing director of Shakib’s company Shakib Al Hasan Agro Farm. The cheques amounted to almost Tk 41.5 million, according to the case. Shakib and Shahagir were supposed to appear in court on Sunday but both of them failed to do so.

Court clerk Atiqur Rahman confirmed that Emdadul Haque, director of the farm also accused in the case, surrendered to court on Sunday and petitioned for bail. The court granted him bail. The court ordered the submission of the death certificate of deceased Malaika Begum, another director of the farm accused in the case. Shahibur Rahman, IFIC Bank relationship officer, filed the case with the court as plaintiff on Dec 15. On Dec 18, the court ordered the accused four to appear before it on Jan 19 after the hearing.

Shahibur said: “Shakib’s company issued two cheques against loans [from the bank]. After they did not pay back the loan, we tried to withdraw money from the account but found out that it had insufficient funds.”  After that a notice was sent to Shakib and his employees, Shahibur said, but they did not respond to it, prompting the bank to lodge the case. The company mainly operates in Satkhira with Shakib as Chairman.