A Dhaka court today refused to grant bail to Regent Group Chairman, Mohammad Shahed, in a case filed on charge of money laundering.
Judge Al Asad Md Asifuzzaman of the Special Judge Court-6 of Dhaka rejected the bail petition submitted by his lawyer.
"My family has been ruined. My 16-year-old daughter stopped going to school. My wife cannot leave home,'' Shahed said before the court during the hearing on a bail petition.
He told the court that his daughter attempted suicide as her classmates called her "daughter of a fraud". Moreover, his wife was called "wife of a thief" as he was framed in a section of "false cases".
With permission, Shahed told the court that when the number of Covid-19 patients was increasing rapidly in 2020, the then health secretary proposed to him to provide treatment of Covid-19 patients in his two hospitals.
After the proposal, his hospitals started testing samples of Covid-19 patients without fees.
"I did not know any of the accused, including former director general of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), Abul Kalam Azad. I did not receive any amount of money which was mentioned in the FIR of the case. Moreover, I was not arrested from Satkhira" Shahed added.
Earlier in the day, Judge Al Asad Md Asifuzzaman granted bail to five others, including Azad in the case.
The four other accused are former director (Hospitals and Clinics) Dr Aminul Hasan, Deputy Director (Hospital-1) Dr Md Younus Ali, Assistant Director (Hospital-1) Dr Md Shafiur Rahman, and Research Officer Dr Md Didarul Islam of DGHS.
The judge also granted the petitions submitted for seeking an adjournment of charge framing hearing against Shahed, Azad and four others in the case.
They were charged for their alleged involvement with embezzlement of government funds in the name of coronavirus sample collection and treatment without having any license.
On September 30 last year, ACC Deputy Director Md Farid Ahmed Patwary, also investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka.
In the charge sheet, Azad's name was included as his involvement with the scam was found during the investigation. He was shown "fugitive" in the charge sheet.
The ACC filed the case against Shahed and four others, excluding the name of Azad on September 22 of 2020.
According to the case statement, the accused converted Regent Hospital, which had shut down, into a dedicated Covid-19 Hospital without renewing its license and abused power as they wanted benefit by illegal means.
They embezzled over Tk 1.37 crore through testing samples of Covid-19 patients in a government-run lab Nipsom, the statement said.
