Supreme Court Overturns Property Transfer Ruling in Favor of Ex-EXIM Bank Chairman Nazrul Islam Mazumder

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The Supreme Court’s Appellate Division has overturned a nine-year-old High Court verdict that had previously granted ownership of a lucrative 22-katha land plot in Dhaka’s Gulshan area to Nazrul Islam Mazumder, the former chairman of EXIM Bank. A bench led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed issued the ruling on Monday, effectively invalidating the registration and subsequent transfers of the property that had been facilitated through Agrani Bank.

The legal dispute centers on a prime plot located at Road-36, Block CWN (B), adjacent to Azad Mosque. According to court documents, ARA Jute Trading Corporation originally mortgaged the property to Agrani Bank in the 1990s to secure a loan of approximately 50 million taka. Following a default on the loan, the bank moved to sell the land. ARA Jute Trading Corporation alleged that Mazumder subsequently fabricated a memorandum of understanding and claimed to have settled the bank’s outstanding claims of roughly 170 million taka, leading the bank to register the land in his name.

The legal battle escalated in 2017 when the High Court ordered the property to be transferred and registered in Mazumder’s favor. ARA Jute Trading Corporation, led by Managing Director Anwarul Kabir Khan, challenged the decision. According to his legal counsel, Khan was later subjected to intimidation and coerced into attempting to withdraw the appeal in 2018, an ordeal that forced him to flee the country for his safety.

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Following the political transition in Bangladesh earlier this year, Khan returned to the country and filed a complaint with the government’s commission on enforced disappearances. He subsequently petitioned the Appellate Division to review the coerced withdrawal of his legal challenge. Upon hearing the appeal, the court ruled that the High Court’s initial decision was invalid, effectively clearing the path for the property to be returned to its original owner.

Legal representatives for the appellant, including senior lawyers Fida M. Kamal and Ahsanul Karim, confirmed that the court declared all registrations and transfers concerning the property since 2012 null and void. While counsel for Mazumder stated they would determine their next course of action upon reviewing the full text of the judgment, the ruling marks a significant setback for the former banking tycoon. Mazumder, who previously served as the head of the Bangladesh Association of Banks, has been in custody since his arrest in October.