A Dhaka court has issued arrest warrant against three higher-ups of controversial e-commerce platform including its founder and CEO Md Rassel in a case filed over cheque fraud.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Kazi Ashrafuzzaman issued the warrants against Rassel, his wife and Evaly Chairman Shamima Nasrin and Administration Officer Md Hassan on Tuesday.
According to the plaintiff’s counsel Abdul Warej, a customer from Dhamrai, Ahad, was given two cheques—one of Tk15 lakhs and another Tk10lakhs --- signed by Rassel.
“When he went to cash the cheques at Dutch Bangla Bank’s Kalampur Branch in Dhamrai upazila, the authorities returned the cheques citing account being blocked closed,” he told the Daily Star.
The accused were served a legal notice, giving them 30 days to repay the amount but they did not take any steps.
Later, a case was filed following which, the court granted the arrest warrant.
“I ordered five motorcycles from Evaly. Even though I was supposed to get the motorcycles within 45 days after paying Tk14 lakhs, they later gave me two cheques for Tk25 lakhs saying the motorcycles were not available,” Ahad told the media.
He said that he filed the case upon not being able to cash the cheques.
On April 21, Rassel secured bail in nine more cases filed against him over cheque fraud.
However, he cannot walk out of jail yet as there are other cases pending against him.
On April 6, Rassel’s wife and Evaly Chairman Shamima Nasrin walked out of jail after securing bail in six cases.
On September 16, 2021, Evaly CEO Rassel and his wife Nasrin were arrested during a raid at their Mohammadpur residence 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.
