A Dhaka court on Thursday placed three officials of TKS Healthcare Service on a five-day remand each in a case filed over embezzling money in the name of conducting Covid-19 tests.
Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mamunur Rashid passed the order after Md Ripon Uddin, a Sub-Inspector of Detective Branch (DB) of police, and also the investigation officer of the case, produced them before the court seeking a seven-day remand in the case.
Defence counsels opposed the remand petitions and sought bail for the accused, but their appeals were rejected.
The three accused are Abdullah Alamin, 31, managing director of TKS group, Abul Hasan Tushar, 38, chairman of TKS group and Mohammad Shahin Mia, 24, marketing manager of the company.
The members of the DB arrested them in simultaneous drives conducted in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area and Jhalakathi district on Tuesday.
A number of fake documents including appointment letters, ID cards, visiting cards, tax certificates and computers were recovered from their possessions during the drive.
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The fraudsters had applied for permission from the Health Ministry to conduct Covid-19 tests on July 11 this year, Ripon Uddin said.
In their application, they mentioned that a total of 5,126 health workers of their company are ready to conduct free Covid-19 tests in eight divisions, 64 districts, 492 upazilas and 4,562 unions of Bangladesh, the officer said.
He admitted that as they knew that they would not get permission from the Health Ministry to set up booths, recruit people and set up camps, they made fake documents for sample collection, recruitment and setting up of camps.
"Using the fake documents, the fraudsters embezzled money from people in the name of recruiting various people in the posts of ‘Upazila Coordinator’ and ‘Field Officer’ in Dhaka and Jhalakathi districts,'' the officer said.
According to the DB, they were trying to sell the dealership of each camp at Tk2 crore.
The officer then urged people to remain aware of fraudulence in the name of conducting Covid-19 tests. "If anyone sets up camp in the name of free Covid-19 test then inform police, and police will take action.”
In this connection, a case was earlier filed against the accused with the Shahbagh police station.
