Regent Hospital boss Shahed, MD Masud placed on 10-day remand

Police have been granted 10 days to interrogate Regent Hospital's Chairman Mohammad Shahed alias Shahed Kabir and MD Masud Parvez in a case over a COVID-19 test scam.

Senior Correspondentand Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 16 July 2020, 05:24 AM
Updated : 16 July 2020, 05:46 AM

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammed Jashim issued the remand order on an application from the detective police on Thursday.

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

Meanwhile, Masud, a close aide to Shahed, was apprehended by the elite police unit from Gazipur on Jul 14.

The two suspects were produced in court around 10:30 am under tight security with only the lawyers of the sides allowed inside.

Shahed was being hounded by law-enforcement agencies for about a week after it emerged that his hospitals swindled thousands of unsuspecting patients out of millions of takas on the pretext of coronavirus treatment.

The RAB sealed off the headquarters and two branches of Regent Hospital in Dhaka. It also initiated a case against 17 people, including Shahed, on charges of issuing fake COVID-19 test reports and other irregularities.

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 billed Tk 19.6 million to the health directorate.

Shahed has allegedly embezzled billions by defrauding ordinary people through his microcredit and MLM business, according to the Anti-Corruption Commission.