Regent Hospital scam: Former DGHS chief Azad gets permanent bail
A Dhaka court today granted permanent bail to former director general of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), Abul Kalam Azad, in a case filed over the Regent Hospital scam.
Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka issued the order after Azad submitted a petition, seeking permanent bail in the case.
On October 7 last year, the same court granted him ad-interim bail until today after he surrendered before it, seeking bail.
The judge fixed February 22 to decide whether to accept charges against Azad and others in the case.
Among the five other accused, 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, who are now on bail, were present in the courtroom today.
Another accused Shahed Karim, chairman of Regent Group, is now in jail.
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.
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