Police in Pabna have arrested 12 farmers and are looking for 25 others following an arrest warrant against a total of 37 farmers for defaulting on loans taken from a government bank.
A judge on Friday ordered the arrestees to jail after they were produced in the court, said Arvind Sarkar, chief of Ishwardi Police Station.
The arrestees are Alam Pramanik, 50, Mahatab Mandal, 45, Abdul Gani Mandal, 50, Shamim Hossain, 45, Samad Pramanik, 43, Noor Boksh, 45, Mohammad Akram, 46, Mohammad Rajab Ali, 40, Kitab Ali, 50, Hannan Mia, 43, Mohammad Majnu, 40, and Mohammad Atiyar Rahman, 50.
The loan amounts range from Tk 25,000 to Tk 30,000, according to the police officer, reports bdnews24.com.
Arvind said some of the farmers claimed they were arrested despite paying off their debt in full to Bangladesh Samabaya Bank, one of the oldest cooperative banks operating since 1977.
Some others admitted during preliminary quizzing that they had failed to follow up on the loans for a while, but claimed that their overdue balances were small, he said.
A man named Mozammel Haque filed the case on behalf of the bank in 2021.
The aforementioned agency attempted to reach the local office of the bank in Pabna for comment, but no official received any call even after multiple attempts.