A Dhaka court accepted charge sheet against six people, including 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 accepted the charges after scrutinising the case dockets and other relevant documents in presence of five accused on Tuesday.

The accused are ex-DG of DGHS Abul Kalam Azad, former director (Hospitals and Clinics) of DGHS 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 and Regent Group’s chairman Shahed Karim.

The court fixed March 16 for hearing on charge framing against the accused in the Special Judge Court-6 of Dhaka.

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.

The ACC filed the case against Shahed and four others on September 22 last year. According to the case statement, the accused converted Regent Hospital, which had been 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 Tk1.37 crore through testing samples of Covid-19 patients in a government-run lab Nipsom, the statement said.

BDST: 1421 HRS, FEB 22, 2022
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