The owner of a hospital chain in Bangladesh that swindled money from thousands of patients by issuing fake coronavirus test reports has been arrested in a border area while he was trying to flee to India, according to media reports.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Regent Hospital Chairman Mohammad Shahed from Satkhira village bordering India on Wednesday and airlifted him to Dhaka before handing him over to the police.
The RAB sealed off the headquarters and two branches of Regent Hospital in Dhaka after it emerged that the hospital authorities had swindled thousands of unsuspecting patients out of millions of takas on the pretext of coronavirus treatment, the bdnews reported.
It also initiated a case against 17 people, including Shahed, on charges of issuing fake COVID-19 test reports and other irregularities.
The case alleges that the hospital authorities duped nearly 6,000 patients out of Tk 20.1 million (USD 237,129) by issuing fake coronavirus tests reports even though it was supposed to provide free treatment for COVID-19. They later billed Tk 19.6 million (USD 231,231) to the health directorate.
According to reports, Shahed belongs to the governing Awami League party headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and is a member of its foreign affairs subcommittee.
Shahed has 56 cases against him and was absconding since the RAB raided his hospitals. Another doctor and her husband were also arrested recently on similar charges of falsifying test results.
JKG Health Care Chairman Sabrina Sharmeen Husain, a government cardiac surgeon and the wife of the hospital’s CEO Ariful Chaudhury, was arrested for providing false reports without testing the swabs collected from the people for COVID-19 tests.
The National Revenue Board on Friday instructed banks to freeze the accounts held by Shahed and Sabrina, the daily reported. The apex tax administration authority has written to the central on the issue, according to a top NBR official.