Former chairman of scam-hit BASIC Bank Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu skipped yesterday's interrogation at the Anti-Corruption Commission, saying he is sick.

After grilling him on December 4 and 6, the ACC set yesterday for further interrogation, but Bacchu sought one month's time.

Wishing not to be named, an ACC official said Bacchu said he was admitted to a city hospital. That was why he could not appear before the ACC and sought the time.

"We're looking into the matter. We'll decide how many days he'll be granted,” the source said.

On November 24, the anti-graft body summoned Bacchu and 10 former directors for interrogation for the first time, around four years after one of the biggest loan scams in the country's banking sector came to the fore.

Bacchu was first questioned on December 4. On that day, he was interrogated in connection with Tk 4,500 crore loan scam, which happened between 2009 and 2012 when he headed the bank's board of directors.

On December 6, Bacchu was quizzed in 10 out of 56 cases.

According to a Bangladesh Bank enquiry, about Tk 4,500 crore was siphoned off from the BASIC Bank between 2010 and 2013 when Bacchu chaired its board.

On July 14, 2014, the central bank sent a report on the scam to the ACC, detailing how people embezzled money from the bank through shell companies and dubious accounts.

The BB found that Bacchu illegally influenced all the activities of the bank, leaving the once-sound institution crumbling.

The report, which contained the findings of an observer deployed at the BASIC Bank, outlined how the former chairman abused his power to play an active role in the loan scam.

The BB first inspected the bank's Gulshan, Shantinagar and Dilkusha branches in 2012 and found evidence of serious anomalies in approving loans.

In 2015, the ACC filed 56 cases over the embezzlement of Tk 2,036 crore from the bank. Another case was filed this month over misappropriation of about Tk 8 crore.