Fake Covid Reports: Rab takes Shahed in custody for probe
Regent Hospital Chairman Mohammad Shahed was handed to Rab yesterday after the elite force was given charge of investigating a case filed over forging Covid-19 test reports.
The home ministry approved Rab's appeal for investigation on Tuesday.
"We took Shahed into our custody as we are now investigating the case," Lt Col Ashique Billah, Rab's legal and media wing director, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Earlier, the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police was tasked with the investigation and Shahed was in the midst of 10-day remand in their custody.
The Rab arrested Shahed from Satkhira on July 15 when he was trying to leave the country through the border.
On July 7, a mobile court sealed off Regent Hospital, owned by Shahed, in the capital's Uttara on charges of issuing several thousand fake Covid-19 test certificates and swindling a huge amount of money.
Since then, many fraudulent acts by him have come to light.
A home ministry letter about Shahed sent to the inspector general of police in 2016 mentioned, "He is a man of a dangerous fraudulent nature."
Shahed is facing over 50 cases filed since 2008, including money laundering and embezzlement of public money. He has already served a prison sentence for embezzling money. Most of the cases were filed under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
Shahed is also at the centre of a rift between the health ministry and the Directorate General of Health Services over a government deal with the private hospital. The agreement allowed the hospital to treat novel coronavirus patients although its licence expired in 2014.
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