DHAKA, Mar 16, 2022 (BSS) - A court here today set April 7 for holding
hearing on charge-framing against former director general (DG) of Directorate
General of Health Services (DGHS) Abul Kalam Azad and five others in a case
filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

As Judge Asad Mohammad Asifuzzaman of Dhaka Special Judge Court-6 was on
vacation, Judge Nazrul Islam of the court in-charge passed the order.

The other accused of the case are - Regent Group chairman Md Shahed alias
Shahed Karim, former DGHS director Aminul Hasan, deputy director Dr Md Eunus
Ali, assistant director Dr Md Shafiur Rahman and research officer Dr Md
Didarul Islam.

For today's hearing, police produced Shahed Karim before the court from jail,
while the other five accused including Azad, who are on bail, appeared at the
courtroom.

ACC filed the case on September 23, 2020, against the five people. Initially,
Azad's name was not in the list of accused.

Later, investigation officer and ACC deputy director Farid Ahmed Patwari
filed charge-sheet in the case on September 30 against six, including Azad,
as his involvement was found during the investigation.

After accepting the charge-sheet, the court also transferred the case to
Dhaka Special Judge Court-6 for further hearing.

According to the case documents, the accused under mutual agreement turned
the unregistered and out of operation Regent Hospital into a Covid-dedicated
hospital and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

They arranged testing samples of 3,939 people for Covid-19 at National
Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM) free of cost, whereas
they realized Taka 3,500 from each person as test fee and embezzled Taka 1,
37, 86,500 in this way.

They are also accused of submitting bills of Taka 1, 96, 20,000 as food
allowance for doctors, nurses, ward boys and other officials and staff of
Regent Hospital's Uttara and Mirpur branches.