RAB interrogates Shahed’s relative over Regent Hospital scam

The Rapid Action Battalion has interrogated Mohammed Ali Bashir, a co-brother of Regent Group’s disgraced owner Mohammed Shahed.

Bashir was detained on Wednesday over a case of fraudulence in providing treatment during the coronavirus epidemic, said Ashik Billah, director of RAB’s legal and media wing.

Bashir, who owns a production company called ‘Telehome’, was released after he was not found to have links to the case, according to the RAB officer.

On Thursday, RAB arrested Tariqul Islam, 33, public relations officer of Regent Hospital, in the capital's Nakhalpara.

The RAB obtained important information from Tariq about the scam as law enforcers continue a manhunt for the main perpetrator, Mohammad Shahed, the chairman of the company.

On July 6, the RAB received complaints that the hospital had been treating patients in an unclean environment and producing fake coronavirus test reports. A RAB mobile court subsequently raided the hospital's headquarters and a branch in Uttara.

The authorities recovered some unauthorised test kits and false test reports during raids. Following the shutdown of the hospital’s headquarters and a branch in Uttara, a RAB mobile court raided Regent Hospital’s Mirpur branch on Wednesday and sealed it off.

As many as 14 allegations of providing false COVID-19 test reports have been brought against the private hospital so far.

The reports were made using seals and pads of a government institution, but the RAB authorities said that those were not verified by RT-PCR tests at any state-own institution.

The RAB later initiated a case against Shahed and 16 others at Uttara West Police Station.

The case alleges that the hospital authorities duped nearly 6,000 patients out of Tk 20.1 million by issuing fake coronavirus tests reports even though it was supposed to provide free treatment for COVID-19. They later forwarded a bill of Tk 19.6 million to the health directorate.