Evaly MD remanded in separate case, wife sent to jail

Police have secured a court order to interrogate Mohammad Rassel, managing director of the embattled e-commerce platform Evaly, for one day in their custody.

But the judge sent Rassel’s wife and the company’s Chairman Shamima Nasrin to jail, turning down a police appeal to place her on remand in a case filed by a supplier with Dhanmondi Police Station over dues.

Police had sought a seven-day remand order to grill Rassel and his wife.

On the other hand, the couple’s lawyers sought bail, but the court did not respond to the appeal.

The Rapid Action Battalion arrested Rassel and Shamima after a customer named Arif Baker filed the fraud case with the Gulshan police on Sept 16.

Rassel and Shamima were placed on a three-day remand after the police took them to the court a day after the arrest.

The man claimed that he had seen Evaly’s advertising and made orders worth Tk 310,000 from the site. The orders have yet to be fulfilled, long after they were made.

Baker contacted the Evaly offices and its CEO over the purchases and he responded with death threats, “frightening” the man, according to the police.

Then came a second case while Rassel and Shamima were in police custody. A supplier to Evaly, named Quamrul Islam, filed the case against 20 people, including Rassel and Shamima, over embezzlement and financial fraud. 

Quamrul said that four of his companies supplied Evaly with products with a total value of nearly Tk 3.6 million.

Evaly had issued two cheques to pay for the goods, but they bounced due to insufficient balance in the accounts, Quamrul alleged.