A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced Destiny Group Managing Director Rafiqul Amin to 12 years in jail in a case of embezzling customers' money from the much talked about Destiny Multipurpose Co-operative Society and money laundering.

The same court also sentenced Destiny Group President former Army chief Lt General (retd) M Harun-Ar-Rashid to 4-years in jail. He surrendered before the court before the verdict was announced.

Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam of Dhaka Special Judges Court-4 handed down the verdict. The court also sentenced the other accused in the case to different terms of imprisonment.

Of the accused, MD Rafiqul Amin, Destiny Group Chairman Mohammad Hossain and Lt Col (Retd) Md Didarul Alam have been in jail for the last 10 years.

Lieutenant General (retd) Harun-Ar-Rashid, Jasmine Akhter, Ziaul Haque Mollah and Saiful Islam Rubel were on bail. The remaining 44 are still absconding.

The absconding accused persons are — Destiny deputy managing director Gofranul Haque, director Mezbah Uddin, Farah Diba, Saeed-ur-Rahman, Syed Sajjad Hossain, Jamshed Ara Chowdhury, Irfan Ahmed, Sheikh Taibur Rahman, Nepal Chandra Biswas, Zakir Hossain, Jasim Uddin Bhuiyan, SM Ahsanul Kabir, Jubayer Hossain, Mosaddek Ali Khan, Abdul Mannan, Abul Kalam Azad, Azad Rahman, Md Akbar Hossain Sumon, Md Sumon Ali Khan, Shirin Akhtar, Rafiqul Islam Sarkar, Md Mojibur Rahman, M Haiderruzzaman, Mohammad Joynal Abedin, Kazi Md Fazlul Karim, Mollah Al Amin, Md Shafiul Islam, Omar Farooq, SikderKabirul Islam, Md. FirozAlam, Sunil BaranKarmakar alias SB Karmakar, Farid Akhtar, S SahiduzzamanChoyan, Abdur Rahman Tapan, Major (retired) Sakibuzzaman Khan, SM AhsanulKabir (Biplob), AHM Ataur Rahman Reza, Golam Kibria Milton, MdAtiqur Rahman, Khandaker Benazir Ahmed, AKM Safiullah, Shah Alam, MdDelwar Hossain and MdShafiqulHaque.

Earlier, on March 27, Judge Sheikh Nazmul Alam fixed May 12 for delivering the verdict in the case.

The then deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Taufiqul Islam had filed two cases against the accused under Money Laundering Act on July 31, 2012 with the Kalabagan police station.

On July 31 2012, the ACC filed two cases with the Kalabagan police station, accusing 53 people including Destiny Managing Director Rafiqul Amin and its chairman.

According to the case statement, Destiny Group had laundered Tk 3,285 crore of investors' money. The other case was filed on charges of laundering Tk 1,389 crore out of Destiny's tree plantation project.

Rafiqul Amin landed in jail after he had surrendered to the court in 2012 over a case filed by the ACC. The court on August 24 2016 framed charges in the two cases.

Rafiqul Amin got the help of the then influential ministers, parliamentarians, politicians, retired top military and civilian bureaucrats to expand the network of Destiny.

He made some of the influential people his business partners.