How Regent Hospital boss Shahed evaded arrest

Mohammad Shahed, the chairman of Regent Hospital, travelled to different districts and changed location frequently to avoid arrest on charges of fraud, including those involving a COVID-19 test scam, according to the RAB.

Liton Haiderbdnews24.com
Published : 15 July 2020, 10:01 PM
Updated : 15 July 2020, 10:02 PM

Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, the director general of RAB, said Shahed hid in Dhaka, Cox’s Bazar, Cumilla and Satkhira over the past week.

The Regent Group boss told the RAB that he had travelled by foot, truck, or car during the period.

Mohammad Shahed, chairman of Regent Hospital, was airlifted to Dhaka's old airport after he was apprehended by RAB on the Satkhira frontier for his roles in a COVID-19 test scam that roiled Bangladesh’s healthcare sector. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested him at a Satkhira village bordering India on Wednesday morning and airlifted him to Dhaka before handing him over to the police.

One of the top RAB officials who took part in the operation, said Shahed left Dhaka in the night of Jul 7 and took shelter at an employee’s home in Narsingdi’s Madhabdi. He knew he would be arrested after the RAB raided and sealed off the hospital’s branches and headquarters.

After roaming around in the town throughout Jul 8, he returned to Dhaka and went to Moheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar by using a car of “Gias”, a relative of Regent Group Managing Director Masud Parvez, the RAB official said, requesting anonymity.

Shahed moved to Cumilla from Moheshkhali by renting a car and then he crossed Dhaka into Manikganj by a truck of a big firm. On Jul 11, the alleged fraudster travelled to Satkhira, his native district.

The RAB arrested Mohammad Shahed, disgraced in Regent Hospital COVID-19 scam, with a loaded pistol on him at a village bordering India in Satkhira's Debhata on Wednesday. Photo: RAB

He contracted “Bachchu”, a boatman, to cross the Labangabati river into India from Komorpur village in Satkhira's Debhata.

The RAB personnel caught him with a loaded pistol in him. He had shaved off his moustache, darkened his hair and wore a burqa for disguise.

Shahed could not sleep much in Satkhira because his relatives refused him shelter, RAB Intelligence chief Sarwar Bin Quasem said.

Mohammad Shahed in RAB custody after the arrest of the Regent Hospital chairman accused of fraud at Satkhira border on Wednesday. Photo: RAB

The area, where he was arrested, was known to Shahed as he had crossed the border there once earlier, Quasem said.

Shahed requested RAB personnel not to produce him before the media after the arrest, an official said.

“Shahed was embarrassed when he saw a journalist known to him clicking his photos at the Tejgaon airport,” an official said.

The Regent Group chairman appeared in TV talk-shows in recent years and discussed ethics among other things.