World News | Bangladesh Hospital Owner Arrested over Coronavirus Test Scam
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. The owner of a hospital chain in Bangladesh that swindled money from thousands of patients by issuing fake coronavirus test reports has been arrested in a border area while he was trying to flee to India, according to media reports.
Dhaka, Jul 17 (PTI) The owner of a hospital chain in Bangladesh that swindled money from thousands of patients by issuing fake coronavirus test reports has been arrested in a border area while he was trying to flee to India, according to media reports.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Regent Hospital Chairman Mohammad Shahed from Satkhira village bordering India on Wednesday and airlifted him to Dhaka before handing him over to the police.
The RAB sealed off the headquarters and two branches of Regent Hospital in Dhaka after it emerged that the hospital authorities had swindled thousands of unsuspecting patients out of millions of takas on the pretext of coronavirus treatment, the bdnews reported.
It also initiated a case against 17 people, including Shahed, on charges of issuing fake COVID-19 test reports and other irregularities.
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The case alleges that the hospital authorities duped nearly 6,000 patients out of Tk 20.1 million (USD 237,129) by issuing fake coronavirus tests reports even though it was supposed to provide free treatment for COVID-19. They later billed Tk 19.6 million (USD 231,231) to the health directorate.
According to reports, Shahed belongs to the governing Awami League party headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and is a member of its foreign affairs subcommittee.
Shahed has 56 cases against him and was absconding since the RAB raided his hospitals. Another doctor and her husband were also arrested recently on similar charges of falsifying test results.
JKG Health Care Chairman Sabrina Sharmeen Husain, a government cardiac surgeon and the wife of the hospital's CEO Ariful Chaudhury, was arrested for providing false reports without testing the swabs collected from the people for COVID-19 tests.
The National Revenue Board on Friday instructed banks to freeze the accounts held by Shahed and Sabrina, the daily reported. The apex tax administration authority has written to the central bank on the issue, according to a top NBR official.
"We sent a letter to the Bangladesh Bank a day after the arrest of JKG Chairman Sabrina. Aside from seeking their account details, we have also asked them to seize their bank accounts," Md Alamgir Hossain, director-general of NBR's Central Intelligence Cell, told bdnews24.com on Friday.
"We will take legal action against them if we find proof of any irregularity in the bank accounts," said Alamgir.
Bangladesh has reported around 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 2,496 deaths. Public health experts say the actual number is much higher because only about 70 testing facilities are available in the country of 160 million people.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)