A Chittagong court on Sunday ordered to sent a former civil surgeon of Chittagong to jail in a graft case filed by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge Begum Jebunnessa passed the order after a hearing.
ACC filed the case against Dr Sarfaraz Khan Chowdhury, who is also the former caretaker of Chittagong General Hospital.
ACC lawyer Kazi Sanowar Ahmed Lavlu said: "The case was filed against Dr Sarfaraz in 2019 for embezzling money in the name of purchasing equipment at Chittagong General Hospital. Dr Sarfaraz surrendered before the court and applied for permanent bail. After the hearing, the court rejected the bail and ordered to send him to jail.”
According to court sources, the price of an MRI machine purchased for Chittagong General Hospital was shown as Tk6 crore when the market value of the MRI machine is around Tk2 crore only.
In the same way, four Color Dopplers were purchased for Tk2.60 crore but the price of this machine in the market is Tk98 lakh.
He thus embezzled more than Tk9 crore by showing prices as greater than the market price.
Earlier on November 25, 2019, ACC's head office Assistant Director Md Sirajul Haque filed a case against seven people, including Dr Sarfaraz, for embezzling money.
The other accused in the case are Consultant (Medicine) Dr Md Abdur Rab, Junior Consultant (Orthopedic Surgery) Dr Md Moin Uddin Majumder, Senior Consultant (Surgery) Dr Bijon Kumar Nath, proprietor of Bengal Scientific and Surgical Company – a supplier of machinery, Zaher Uddin Sarker, owner of Ahmed Enterprise Munshi Faruk Hossain and Managing Director and CEO of ASL Aftab Ahmed.
