Oaishe Khan, the daughter of former shipping minister and Awami League presidium member Shajahan Khan, was stopped from boarding a flight to London on Sunday over inconsistencies in her Covid-19 test reports.
The Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight departed Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka without her at 12.12pm, according to Biman spokesperson Tahera Khondoker.
Oaishe was supposed to board the flight at 11am, but she was not allowed as her Covid-19 test report did not match the record on the official database.
The certificate she produced at the airport said she has not been diagnosed with novel coronavirus but the database showed she has been tested positive.
Picture shows a computer-generated report of the Covid-19 test, which says the passenger has been tested positive
Shajahan Khan has said he will file a complaint with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the authority that regulates all Covid-19 tests conducted across the country. He claims his daughter tested negative on July 25 and the wrong result was uploaded to the database.
“I knew that my test was negative. I would not have brought my father to the airport if I thought I was Covid-19 positive,” Oaishe told Dhaka Tribune.
Sources at the airport confirmed that the former minister’s daughter used the VIP entrance of the departure terminal, where her certificate was not cross-checked at the health desk. She was sent back by the immigration when her test results came as positive in the database.
However, a senior DGHS official said the Covid-19 certificate Oaishe produced at the immigration was not authentic.
Upon scrutiny, it was found that her Covid-19 certificate was forged. It did not have a QR code and was signed by one Dr Md Bayzid Bin Monir, according to the official who asked not to be named.
A copy of the Covid-19 test report produced at the Dhaka airport immigration is seen in this picture obtained by Dhaka Tribune
The official said the Covid-19 certificate recorded on the server was issued by the Management Information System (MIS), DGHS, and was signed by the DGHS authorities.
“The certificate she [Oaishe] had was not authentic. The DGHS is not going to take responsibility,” added the official.
Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh (CAAB) Chairman Air-Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman said Covid-19 certificates are mandatory for outbound passengers. “We cannot let anyone go through without that.”
Airport health in charge Dr Zaheer Islam said: “We have lack of manpower at the VIP entrance, even though the government has appointed five doctors to check outbound passengers, including at the VIP entrance. When she entered, there was no health official on duty there.”