Rapid Action Battalion arrested Regent Group chairman Mohammad Shahed in Satkhira near Bangladesh’s border with India in the early hour on Wednesday.
RAB spokesman additional superintendent of police Sujoy Sarkar told New Age that Shahed was arrested around 5:00am.
Director of RAB legal and media wing Lieutenant Colonel Ashik Billah told reporters he was arrested with an arm near Debhata Border of the district.
Quoting RAB officials our Satkhira correspondent said Shahed was trying to cross the border through Komorpur village of Debhata.
He wore a burqah and took the guise of a woman and had been waiting to cross the river Isamoti with the help of smugglers when RAB officials found him.
He was later flown into Dhaka by a helicopter. RAB took Shahed to its headquarters for interrogation after the helicopter landed Dhaka’s old airport in Tejgaon around 8:30am.
Earlier on Tuesday, RAB arrested Regent Group’s managing director Masud Parvez in a case filed over COVID-19 test forgery.
RAB on July 7 and 8 sealed off Regent Group’s headquarters in Dhaka and two hospitals, respectively in Uttara and Mirpur in the capital.
Regent Hospitals signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Directorate General of Health Services to provide COVID -19 treatments in March.
But a mobile court, led by RAB executive magistrate Sarwoer Alam, found that the hospitals were operating without a license and issued around 6,000 COVID-19 certificates without conducting the test.
A case was filed with Uttara West police station on the following day against Shahed and 16 other officials and staff members in charge of issuing fake COVID-19 certificates, charging fees for free testing and providing substandard health services. ❑
