A Metropolitan Magistrate court on Friday allowed the police to take detained Evaly chief executive officer Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, also chairman of the e-commerce company, in their custody for three days to interrogate in a case lodged with Gulshan Police Station in Dhaka for cheating and misappropriating money of the e-commerce firm’s consumers.
Metropolitan magistrate Atiqul Islam of the court passed the order responding to a petition seeking the court’s permission to take them under the police custody for 10 days, said Gulshan police station’s inspector (investigation) Aminul Islam.
The couple were arrested by the members of Rapid Action Battalion at their residence at Mohammadpur in Dhaka on Thursday afternoon and the police produced the duo before the court at about 2:00pm on Friday.
Evaly customer Arif Barek of Gulshan filed the case Thursday morning with the Gulshan police station against the couple on charges of cheating by delaying delivery of the products he purchased from the e-commerce platform.
Earlier in the morning, RAB said that they, during the interrogation of arrested Evaly CEO, came to know that the e-commerce company had liabilities of Tk 1,000 crore.
‘He had a plan to sell the company to any reputed big foreign company with the liabilities,' the RAB's legal and media wing director Commander Khandaker Al Moin said in a press conference at his headquarters.
Moin said that Russell wanted to make Evaly a South Asian brand and he could make profit from his venture since it was set 2018.
The RAB official said Russell met influential personalities and sponsored many programmes as part of their marketing policy and corporate social responsibility.
He started his venture with Tk 1 crore that he had managed after selling a baby item business and by February he had a liability of Tk 403 crore against his capital of Tk 65 crore.
Evaly is facing multiple investigations over its business practices and alleged embezzlement of money of its clients.
On July 4, the commerce ministry in a letter requested the Anti-Corruption Commission to take legal action against Evaly.
Later, the ACC formed a two-member committee to investigate the alleged embezzlement of about Tk 338.62 crore by Evaly.
The letter was issued after an inspection of the Bangladesh Bank had found massive irregularities, said a ministry official.
According to the letter, Evaly’s total liability was Tk 407.18 crore, which it needs to pay to consumers and merchants.
‘After receiving Tk 213.94 crore in advance from customers and Tk 189.85 crore from merchants, the company was expected to have at least Tk 403.80 crore in current assets, but it had only Tk 65.17 crore,’ the letter said, quoting the BB inspection report.
On September 14, 2021, an inter-ministerial committee led by the commerce ministry decided to recommend that the home ministry take action against Evaly.
Md Hafizur Rahman, director general of the WTO cell of the commerce ministry, after the meeting said that the central bank had been asked to provide information on 10 e-commerce platforms.
The meeting also discussed the activities of Dhamaka and E-orange.
The Criminal Investigation Department filed a money laundering case against another e-commerce platform DhamakaShopping.
Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection deputy director Masum Arefin said that they had received around 5,000 complaints against Evaly and 70 per cent of them had already been settled.
