Former Health DG Returns without Surrendering

Former Director General (DG) of the Health Directorate Dr Abul Kalam Azad appeared before the court to surrender in the Regent Hospital Scandal case but returned.

He appeared in the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court on Tuesday, five days after the ACC filed the chargesheet in the case. He also surrendered through a lawyer and plead for bail. But Judge KM Imrul Kayesh could not hear Azad's plea as he was busy with another case. The court asked him to come another day later.

The lawyer then withdrew his application for surrender and Azad left the court premises, said Mohammad Zulfiqar, an official of the ACC's general registration branch.

A total of six people, including Mohammad Shahed, chairman of the Regent Hospital, and former DG Abul Kalam Azad of the health directorate, have been charged in the case with embezzling government funds by contracting for the collection and treatment of coronavirus samples without a license.

ACC Deputy Director Farid Ahmed Patwari, the investigating officer in the case, filed the chargesheet in the court on September 30.

The other four accused are former director of the Health Directorate Aminul Hasan, deputy director (hospital-1) Mohammad Yunus Ali, assistant director (hospital-1) Mohammad Shafiur Rahman and research officer Mohammad Didarul Islam.