A Dhaka court on Tuesday set March 16 for holding hearing on charge-framing in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) against former director general (DG) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Abul Kalam Azad and five others.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge KM Imrul Qayesh passed the order after accepting a charge-sheet filed by investigation officer (IO) and ACC deputy director Farid Ahmed Patwari. The IO on September 30, 2021, filed the charge-sheet in the case.
The other accused are Regent Group chairman Md Shahed alias Shahed Karim, former DGHS director Aminul Hasan, deputy director Dr Md Eunus Ali, assistant director Dr Md Shafiur Rahman and research officer Dr Md Didarul Islam.
For yesterday's hearing, police produced Shahed Karim before the court from jail, while the other five accused including Azad, who are on bail, appeared at the courtroom. After accepting the charge-sheet, the court also transferred the case to Dhaka Special Judge Court-6 for further hearing.
The ACC filed the case on September 23, 2020, against five. Though initially Azad's name was not there in the list of accused, later his name was included in the charge-sheet as the IO found his involvement during his investigation.
According to the case documents, the accused under mutual agreement turned the unregistered and out of operation Regent Hospital into a Covid-dedicated hospital and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
They arranged testing samples of 3,939 people for Covid-19 at National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) free of cost, whereas they realized Taka 3,500 from each person as test fee and embezzled Taka 1, 37, 86,500 in this way.
They are also accused of submitting bills for Taka 1, 96, 20,000 as food allowance for doctors, nurses, ward boys and other officials and staff of Regent Hospital's Uttara and Mirpur branches.