Three fraudsters were arrested on Tuesday on the charge of embezzling money in the name of conducting covid-19 test.
The members of the detective branch (DB) of police arrested them in simultaneous drives conducted in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area and Jhalakathi district on Tuesday.
The arrestees were identified as - Abdullah Alamin, managing director of TKS group, Abul Hasan Tushar, chairman of TKS group and Mohammad Shahin Mia, marketing manager of the company.
Plenty of fake documents including appointment letters, ID cards, visiting cards, tax certificates and computers were recovered from their possessions during the drive.
“The fraudsters formed an organization named TKS Healthcare Service, located at the 2nd floor of Al Razi Complex, Shaheed Sayed Nazrul Islam Sarani in Dhaka,” said the joint commissioner of DB (north division) Mohammad Harun Ur Rashid, during a press briefing at DMP’s media centre on Wednesday.
The fraudsters then applied for permission to conduct Covid-19 tests to the Health Ministry on July 11 this year.
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 said as they knew that they would not get permission from the Health Ministry to set up booths, to recruit people and to 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 test. "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 has been filed against the arrestees with the Shahbagh police station.
