Gulam Rabbani :
Though some of the staffers of the Regent Hospital have already been arrested, the Chairman of the fraudulent organization Mohammad Shahed is still out of reach. Question is raising in the minds of the people how and where this fraudster is hiding himself.
Speculation has spreading in the virtual world that he might have fled the country and the people who had received advantages from Shahed in different times helped him to flee. Otherwise he is hiding himself in a place where he is safe now. There are many influential persons in the list of suspects for giving shelter to Shahed.
Uttara and Mirpur branches of Regent Hospital, owned by Shahed, were sealed off on July 7 for allegedly faking Covid-19 test certificates and over other irregularities. Huge documents of faking Covid-19 test certificates were recovered from those two branches then.
Later a case was filed with Uttara West Police Station against Regent Gtoup Chairman Md Shahed, its MD Masud Parvez and 15 others. Total 8 accused of that case have already been arrested, but the rest of the accused, including Shahed, are still out of reach.
Shahed has been running away for the last six days, as a fugitive, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Sunday said Shahed will have to surrender to police as measures have been taken so that he cannot go abroad.
“Shahed will have to surrender, otherwise he will be arrested. He has no way to go abroad as his passport has been seized,” he said responding to a question from newsmen after a meeting at his Ministry.
The Minister said police and RAB have been investigating what kind of irregularities he (Shahed) did, adding, “After getting the investigation report, I can tell you his depth of irregularities.”
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has already taken action against Shahed’s wrongdoing. The law enforcement agencies were hunting Shahed wherever he is staying, he said expressing hope that Shahed would be arrested soon. “Measures have been taken to prevent him from crossing the border,” he added.
Shahed was not arrested till Sunday though some of the top government officials, including the Home Minister, were saying that he is still in the country and he will have to surrender. He went into hiding and out of all kinds of network after the drive had started in his hospital. His cell phone and facebook ID are closed now.
Sources of the law enforcing agencies said that a group of people took advantages from Shahed different times. May be he is quite safe with any such beneficiary.
At least 32 cases have been filed with different police stations in the capital city against Shahed in last 9 years. He made close relationships with the influential peoples of the different corners in order to do cheating business. Shahed did not care about the common people as he had relations with influential people.
Earlier, on July 6, RAB conducted raids at the Uttara and Mirpur branches of the Regent Hospital in Dhaka and found that it forged over 6,000 COVID-19 certificates and embezzled over Tk 3 crore in the name of providing COVID-19 testing facilities and treatments.
The mobile court, led by Executive Magistrate Sarwoer Alam on July 7 raided at the Regent Group head office and seized some fake certificates, many unauthorized rapid testing kits, a unregistered jeep.
Sarwoer told reporters in a briefing that certificates were forged in main office at Uttara sector-12 and then sold to different people at price of Tk 3,500. Most of the fake certificates were showing negative results, said an officer of RAB.
