A legal notice has been served to the government seeking Tk10 lakh in compensation for the family of each victim of Regent hospital, which swindled thousands of unsuspecting patients out of millions of taka on the pretext of Covid-19 testing and treatment.
It was sent to the secretaries of home and health ministries, the director general of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the managing director of Regent Hospital on Sunday.
The notice, sent by Barrister Abdul Halim on behalf of Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Ishrat Hassan, also sought a list of licenced hospitals and diagnostic centres.
The notice sought response from the authorities concerned regarding publication of the list, legal action against illegal hospital and diagnostics centres, and announcement of the compensation within 48 hours.
The DGHS in a statement on July 11 said that complaints from various sources had pointed it toward the Regent Hospital’s misconducts, which then led to the July 6 raid by Rapid Action Battalion and directorate officials at the hospital’s two branches in the capital’s Uttara and Mirpur.
The owner and chairman of Regent Hospital, Shahed Karim alias Md Shahed, was arrested on July 15, after an eight-day-long manhunt in several districts around the country.
Two days before he was held, a Dhaka court had issued an arrest warrant in two cases filed over embezzlement of Tk3.68 crore.
The Detective Branch (DB) police has Shahed in their custody and is interrogating him over various charges, including issuance of fake Covid-19 test reports.