Investors, creditors, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders of a company should not suffer the consequence if a director or a management official of a company is thrown in jail for his misdeeds, said the High Court in an order.
These innocent stakeholders should be spared from the mental agony and financial suffering by the closure of the company's businesses, until it becomes unavoidable and thereby absolutely necessary to wind up the said company, also observed the HC.
The High Court bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order after hearing an application filed seeking permission to call and hold the Annual General Meetings (AGMs) of Destiny-2000 Ltd.
In the order passed on September 1 this year, the High Court constituted a 19-member Board of Directors to hold board meetings and Annual General Meetings of Destiny-2000 Ltd and all its subsidiaries including Boishakhi Television Ltd.
Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, a former judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, has been appointed chairman of the board.
The list of the board members includes the name of Fakhruddin Ahmed, an FCA, Ahmed Mushfeq Anam, managing director of X-Fer Limited, Supreme Court lawyers Margub Kabir and Prashanta Bhushan Barua, Mohammad Iqbal Jamal, General Body Member of the FBCCI.
It also includes 13 shareholders of Destiny-2000 on the board. They are--- Muhammad Zakir Hossain, Biplob Bikash Shill, Samnoon Ehsan Shamim, Kamrul Hasan, Shahjada Al Mahmud, Mohammad Hossain Azad, Syed Mohammed Iqbal, Moynuddin Ahmed, Saiful Alam Ratan, Masuda Ismat Ara, Md Ibrahim Khalil, Hosne Ara Islam and Serajum Munir.
In the full text of the order that was released on Thursday, the HC said the court-appointed chairman is entrusted with the power to call, conduct and hold the company's board meeting on or before October 31, 2022, wherein the board shall consider retention of the present managing director or appoint a new managing director of the company.
The court has asked the Board of Directors to appoint a well-reputed Chartered Accountancy Firm for carrying out the company’s special audit for purpose of finding out the illegalities committed by the previous board and its officials.
In the board meeting of the Board of Directors, the board shall nominate Mr Fakhrunddin, Ahmed Mushfeq Anam and Prashanta Bhushan Barua as the Directors of Boishakhi Television, a subsidiary of Destiny-2000 Ltd.
The court asked the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman and the Governor of the Bangladesh Bank to wholeheartedly cooperate with the court-appointed Board of Directors in running the company’s business.
A total of 16 shareholders of Destiny-2000 Ltd filed a petition with the High Court on May 31 in 2022 seeking its permission over holding the AGMs. After hearing the petition the court reconstituted the board and allowed the board to hold AGMs.
On May 12 in 2022, a special court in Dhaka sentenced all the 46 accused, including Destiny Group President and former chief of Army Staff General Harun-Ar-Rashid and Managing Director Rafiqul Amin, to different terms of imprisonment in a case filed over embezzling Tk 18.61 billion through Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited.
bikashju@gmail.com