A hospital owner in Bangladesh, who has been arrested on charges of fraud and for allegedly issuing thousands of fake COVID-19 test results, embezzled around Tk 12.5 crore from various individuals and organizations.

The elite force of Bangladesh police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), has received 160 complaints from victims in the last five days against Regent Hospital owner Mohammad Shahed Karim.

Of them, 21 complaints were received via email and 139 came through the hotline number the RAB had opened after arresting Shahed.

In addition, the elite law enforcement agency also found a total of 48 regular cases against Shahed.

The hotline services have now been suspended after remaining open for five days. But people can still send their grievances through email.

Lt Col Ashique Billah, Director of Legal and Media Wing of the RAB, mentioned that the elite force had filed three cases after conducting a drive at the hospital.

One of them was a case of fraud filed against 17 persons, including Shahed, with Uttara police station of the Capital.

The second case was filed under the Arms and Anti-Terrorism Act with Debhata police station in Satkhira after Shahed was arrested with arms in his possession.

The third case was filed under the Special Powers Act after the recovery of counterfeit money, he said.

The RAB is already investigating the fraud and the arms case after getting a nod from the Home Ministry.

The other case is being processed legally to be handed over to RAB.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) of Bangladesh submitted a petition to show that Shahed was arrested in a case filed over the misappropriation of about Tk 1.51 crore of NRB Bank Ltd between November 2014 and January 2018.

The court also directed the investigation officer to submit the probe report of the case by August 16.

As per terms and conditions of the loan, Shahed maintained a fixed deposit worth Tk 1 crore.

Against the fixed deposit, however, he received a loan of Tk 2,04,90,987 between November 2014 and January 15, 2018, the case statement said.

Shahed did not repay instalments on time and owed the bank another Tk 65.79 lakh as interest and others.

The bank later adjusted the loan with his fixed deposits and deposited interests worth Tk 1.18 crore.

But the bank could not recover the remaining Tk 1.51 crore till now, which was embezzled by the accused, said the case statement.

Shahed came to the limelight after he was found involved in issuing fake COVID-19 certificates and illegally charging for treatment of patients following a raid at the hospital.

Shahed was arrested on July 15 early morning from B'desh �India border Satkhira, as he was trying to leave the country on a boat crossing Ichhamoti river.

Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka fixed August 5 for the next hearing on the petition through video conferencing.

The others accused in the case are, Managing Director of Regent Hospital Ibrahim Khalil, former vice-president of SME Division of NRB Bank Wahid-bin-Ahmed and former principal officer of the bank, Sohanur Rahman.

According to case statement, without depositing any money, Shahed, on behalf of Regent Hospital, opened a current account with the NRB bank's SME department on November 17, 2014.

Shahed did not have any prior transaction history with the bank.

The bank also did not take enough collateral for the loan.

Despite all these, the bank officials -- Wahid Bin Ahmed and M Sohanur Rahman recommended sanctioning Shahed the loan on November 16, a day before the account was opened.(IANS)