The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has approved a charge sheet against Regent Group Chairman and Regent Hospital owner Mohammad Shahed, alias Shahed Karim, in a case filed over an amassing of illegal wealth to the tune of nearly Tk1.70 crore and failure to submit a wealth statement.
A regular meeting held at the commission’s headquarters at Segunbagicha in Dhaka on Wednesday approved the charge sheet and it will be filed in court soon, said ACC spokesperson Md Arif Sadeq.
On November 5, 2020, the commission had sent a notice, asking Shahed to submit statements of all immovable and movable wealth owned by him within 21 working days.
Later, he applied for an extension. The commission extended the deadline by 15 working days but he again failed to submit the wealth statement. After that, ACC decided to file the charge sheet against him.
He was also charged under Sections 409/420/109 of the Penal Code and Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act for amassing TK1,69,17,513 beyond his known sources of income.
Earlier in March, the commission had filed a case against Shahed, which ACC Deputy Director Farid Ahmed Patwari was tasked to investigate.
After 10 months, the investigation officer submitted the charge sheet and sought the approval of the authorities.
Shahed and Regent Hospital have been the talk of the town since the beginning of July after security agencies raided the hospital over its alleged involvement in providing fake Covid-19 certificates to people and embezzling money from patients.
On July 13, the ACC decided to probe the allegations against Shahed and formed a four-member probe committee to that end.
On July 15, he was arrested after eight days of investigations and raids in Dhaka and several other districts.