Despite claims of no funds, a considerable amount of blank cheques were recovered from one of two lockers inside controversial e-commerce platform Evaly's office in the capital on Monday.
The management committee that was appointed by the High Court, cracked open the locker in presence of the Dhaka South City Corporation Executive Magistrate Asfia Sirat, from which 97 cheque books of Midland Bank and 10 of City Bank were found.
Among the members, retired judge of the Appellate Division AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and former Additional Secretary Mahbub Kabir Milon, who has been appointed managing director (MD) of Evaly, were present there.
AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik said the High Court directed Evaly chief Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin to disclose the combination numbers of the lockers.
The decision to break open the locker was taken as the two incarcerated owners failed to deliver anything to the committee, he also said.
"We have already broken into a locker and found several cheque books. However, we are disappointed, because these are no longer valid. Another locker will be cracked and would later be known what's in it," he told the media.
Evaly began operations in 2018. The company quickly gathered traction by offering lucrative discounts and cashback.
According to Evaly, the company has Tk543 crore in liabilities — much higher than the amount found by an initial probe of Bangladesh Bank.
Of this, it owes Tk311 crore to customers and Tk206 crore to merchants.
Following the central bank’s report, the Commerce Ministry asked the Home Ministry to file a case against Evaly over the alleged embezzlement of Tk338 crore taken as advance from customers.
On September 16, after the arrest of Evaly’s CEO Rassel and Chairperson Shamima Nasrin, his wife, RAB revealed that the platform counts liabilities over Tk1,000 crore.
