The High Court (HC) bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar has ordered the inclusion of Shamima Nasreen, her mother and brother-in-law on the new board of directors at the infamous e-commerce platform Evaly.
The HC bench gave the order last month stating that the court-appointed board has been given the choice of resigning after the formation of a new board of directors, following the completion of all necessary formalities to register the names of the applicants as shareholders by September 9.
Earlier, on August 10, the former chairman of the e-commerce platform appealed to the court-appointed board for restarting the infamous platform's operations.
In the application, she asked to include herself, her mother and her sister's husband on the board of directors.
“In view of our application, the HC has asked to complete Evaly’s audit quickly and induct Shamima Nasreen, her mother and brother-in-law in the new board after the completion of the audit,” Advocate Ahsanul Karim who applied on behalf of Shamima Nasreen told Dhaka Tribune.
The application further mentioned that out of the 50% shares of the company, the former chairman had already transferred 20% shares in the name of her mother and relative.
The legal representative further expressed hope that the court-appointed board would soon resign following the formation of the new management board of Evaly.
As per the instructions of the HC, the new board of directors has been asked to appoint an official from the Ministry of Commerce, who does not hold any position less than that of joint secretary, as an independent director for Evaly.
The new board will also have a representative from e-cab.
The audit firm appointed by the current board was asked to complete the audit of Evaly by September 15.
After receiving the audit report from the audit firm, the court-appointed board will make its own inquiry and provide observations on why the platform was shut down.
According to sources, the infamous platform’s audit has already been completed as per the court’s orders and the five-member board headed by former Justice HM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik will soon hand over responsibility to the new board of directors and resign.
Shamima Nasreen, and her other two family members will be inducted as members of Evaly's management board in the board meeting on September 22.
On October 18 last year, the High Court formed a five-member board headed by former Appellate Judge HM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik to put an end to Evaly and its scams on consumers.
Earlier, on September 15 of that year, a customer named Arif Baker filed a case against Evaly at the Gulshan police station, accusing its owners Russell and his wife Shamima of scamming consumers and embezzling money.
A day after, on September 16, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Evaly CEO Rassel and his wife Nasrin during a raid at their Mohammadpur residence in the capital in a case filed with Gulshan police station over allegations of embezzling customers' money.
This came following the Commerce Ministry’s decision to request the Home Ministry to take legal actions against Evaly over violations of laws and deceiving customers on September 14.
The company accepted money in advance payments, tempting customers with huge discounts on its website and promises of delivery within 7-45 days. But the delivery deadline passed without ever receiving products or a refund.
At the time of the arrest of its top brass, Evaly's own estimates put its assets at Tk121 crore then, yet owed consumers and merchants more than Tk1,000 crore.