Regent Hospital scam: Charges framed against ex-DGHS DG, 5 others

A Dhaka court today framed charges against six people, including former director general of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) Abul Kalam Azad, in a case filed over the Regent Hospital scam.

Five 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 and Shahed Karim, chairman of Regent Group.

Azad and four others, now on bail, and Shahed, now in jail custody, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge Al Asad Md Asifuzzaman of Special Judge's Court of Dhaka read out the charges to them.

Earlier in the day, the judge dismissed the petitions submitted for discharging them from the charges of the case, ACC Public Prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir confirmed it to The Daily Star.

The judge fixed July 4 for starting trial of the case.

All the accused were charged for their alleged involvement with embezzlement of government funds in the name of coronavirus sample collection and treatment without having any licence.

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.

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 licence 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.