Police get four days to question ex-Eorange COO over fraud

Police have received a court order to interrogate former Eorange Chief Operating Officer Nazmul Alam Rasel for four days in connection with an embezzlement case.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Abu Bakr Siddique issued the order on Sunday following a hearing.

The case investigating officer, Gulshan Police Inspector Aminul Islam, brought the suspect to court on Sunday as an arrestee in the case and petitioned the court for a 10-day remand to interrogate him. The court accepted the arrest and then heard the remand petition.

Lawyer Shantanu Dhar, who represented Rasel at the hearing, called for the remand to be scrapped.

“Nazmul Alam Rasel is himself a victim,” he said. “He left the job four months ago. He was replaced by Aman Ullah. And still the case was filed against him. He was also remanded for questioning twice. But there has been no progress in the case against him. He is a victim in this case and he is innocent.”

“He has been implicated in this case because certain people have personal enmity against him. But he left the job four months ago. Why should he be accused in the case? Why should he be taken into remand? Rasel is not connected to this case. So, we request the remand petition be scrapped and he be granted bail.”

Gulshan Police Deputy Inspector Alamgir Hossain opposed the defence’s motion as the representative for the state.

After hearing from both sides, the magistrate granted police four days to interrogate Rasel.

On Aug 17, an Eorange customer, Taherul Islam, filed a case against the company, claiming he had been the victim of fraud.

The court then imposed travel restrictions on Eorange owner Sonia Mehjabin and the four other suspects in the case.

The case accuses the suspects of defrauding 100,000 customers of Tk 11 billion by taking advance payments for goods, but then not delivering them.

Customers who had yet to receive their purchases held a day-long protest in front of the Eorange Gulshan offices on Aug 16.

Sonia Mehjabin and her husband Masukur Rahman surrendered to the court on Aug 17 after the case was filed. Their request for bail was rejected and the two were sent to jail.

On Aug 18, police arrested COO Aman Ullah from the Gulshan area and seized 24 credit cards, Tk 1.6 million and cars from his possession.

On Aug 23, a court granted investigators a five-day remand to question Sonia Mehjabin, Masukur Rahman and Aman Ullah in their custody.