A Dhaka court has placed Regent Hospital Managing Director (MD) Mizanur Rahman on a 10-day remand under police custody in a case filed for providing fake Covid-19 test reports to metro rail project workers.
Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mainul Islam passed the order on Saturday afternoon after police produced him before the court.
Sub-Inspector (SI) Yadur Rahman of Uttara West police station, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted a petition seeking a 10-day remand to quiz the accused over the matter.
The court, however, granted the petition rejecting a bail petition filed by the defence.
General Recording Officer (GRO) of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court SI Jalal Uddin confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
Earlier, police arrested Mizanur from Gopalganj on Friday night in connection with the case.
He went into hiding since the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) raided the hospital on July 6.
Tapan Chandra Saha, officer-in-charge (OC) of Uttara West police station, said a labour outsourcing company of the metro rail project filed the case at the police station against the Regent Hospital authorities on July 20.
According to the case statement, 76 labourers of the metro rail project were given fake Covid-19 test reports from the hospital.
''Without even conducting tests, three of these workers were given Covid-19 positive reports while the rest were provided negative reports from the hospital.
Being a Covid-19 dedicated hospital, the authorities of the health facility took Tk3,500 from each of the workers for a coronavirus test, the OC added.
On July 15, the RAB arrested Regent Hospital Chairman Mohammad Shahed alias Shahed Karim on the bank of Labangaboti canal in Komarpur village under Satkhira's Debhata upazila, while he was trying to flee across the border to India.
Shahed was held for his alleged involvement in providing fake Covid-19 certificates and embezzling money from patients.
On July 16, Detective Branch of police took the alleged fraudster into its custody for 10 days to grill him over the matter.
Shahed, also the chairman of Regent Group, went into hiding since RAB conducted drives at the Uttara and Mirpur branches of the Regent Hospital. Accused in dozens of cases, Shahed had been wandering around under the nose of police for a long time.
On July 6, RAB raided the branches of the hospital on complaints that the hospital was issuing fake Covid-19 certificates, as well as charging exorbitant fees for Covid-19 testing and treatment of patients.
It also found evidence of at least 6,000 fake Covid-19 test certificates during the raid.
The next day, RAB filed a case against 17 people, including Shahed and Managing Director of Regent Group Masud Parvez, at Uttara West police station.