A Dhaka court sentenced Mohammad Sahed Karim to one year in prison in a cheque-dishonour case involving Tk 2,318,358.
The court also imposed a fine equal to the cheque amount.
Judge Md Ariful Islam of the Third Joint Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court in Dhaka issued the order.
Defence lawyer Mohammad Dabir Uddin said the verdict had been delivered in Sahed’s absence on 3 May.
Dabir Uddin said Sahed was shown arrested under the sentence warrant on 2 August, and the court rejected his bail application and ordered him sent to jail.
The lawyer said the defence had known of another case filed on 16 July 2020 over the same incident but had not known of the cheque case.
Hafiz Uddin Bahar, proprietor of Bahar Traders International, filed the cheque case on 26 July 2020.
Bahar alleged that Sahed had received construction materials and issued a cheque dated 10 December 2019 as payment.
The complaint alleges that the cheque was presented on 5 May 2020 and was returned because the account did not contain sufficient funds.
It further alleges that a legal notice seeking payment was sent on 2 June 2020 and that the money was not paid within the specified period.
On 30 July, Sahed received 10 days’ bail in a separate fraud case on settlement terms, subject to a Tk 5,000 bond.
Police arrested him on 20 July under a warrant in a separate cheque-dishonour case involving Tk 21.6 million, and he has remained in custody since then.
Both items state that he was sentenced to life imprisonment in an arms case in September 2020 and was released in September 2024 after securing bail in different cases.