Court Correspondent :
The Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka yesterday fixed January 23 to accept the charge sheet against former Director General (DG) of the Health Department Abul Kalam Azad and five others in a case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Senior Special Judge KM Imrul Kayesh of the court fixed the date to accept the charge sheet on Tuesday. ACC GR wing officer Md. Zulfikar of the court confirmed the matter yesterday.
A total of six people, including Regent Hospital Chairman Mohammad Shahed and Health Department’s for DG Abul Kalam Azad, have been charged in the case for ’embezzling government funds’ by contracting for the collection and treatment of corona-virus despite lack of license.
ACC Deputy Director Farid Ahmed Patwari, Investigation Officer of the case, submitted the charge-sheet to the court on September 30.
The other four accused are Dr Aminul Hasan, former Director (Hospitals and Clinics) of the Health Department, Deputy Director (Hospital-1) Dr Md. Younus Ali, Assistant Director (Hospital-1) Dr Md Shafiur Rahman and Research Officer Dr Md Didarul Islam.
The accused have been accused of converting unlicensed Regent Hospital into a ‘Dedicated Covid Hospital’, signing a memorandum of understanding and testing samples of 3,939 Covid patients free of cost at the lab of government institution NIPSOM.
The charge sheet said, “From there, one crore 36 lakh 6 thousand 500 rupees has been received as three and a half thousand rupees per patient for illegal rewards. The charge-sheet further says that the accused in collusion with one another, agreed to convert Regent Hospital into a dedicated Covid Hospital. The ACC people seized Tk 3,500 crore the accused.
They have been charged under the Sections 409/420/109 of the Penal Code and Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 for embezzling a total of Tk 3,34,8,500.
On September 23 last year, ACC Deputy District Director Dhaka-1 filed the case accusing five people.
Later, the ACC gave the responsibility of investigation to complainant Farid Ahmed. After a year of investigation into the case, the commission approved the charge sheet on September 20.
Although Abul Kalam Azad was not named in the case, he was named as an accused in the charge-sheet.
