DHAKA, April 1, 2024 (BSS) - A court here today took charge-sheet filed in a graft case lodged by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) against former director general (DG) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Abul Kalam Azad and five others, into cognizance.
 
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Ash Shams Zaglul Hossain passed the order and sent it to Dhaka Special Judge Court-6 for holding trial.
 
The trial was in the stage of recording testimonies at the court of Judge Manjurul Imam of Dhaka Special Judge Court-6. But as there was no written mention of whether the charge-sheet has been taken into cognizance or not, in the order, the defence filed an application regarding the matter.
 
The court later sent the case to the metropolitan sessions judge court for further proceedings.
 
Investigation officer (IO) and ACC deputy director Farid Ahmed Patwari filed the case on September 23, 2020, against five. The IO filed charge-sheet in the case on September 30, 2021, against six including Azad.
 
Though initially Azad's name was not there in the list of accused, but later it was included in the charge-sheet as the IO found his involvement during his investigation.
 
The other accused 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.
 
According to the case documents, the accused under mutual agreement turned the unregistered and out of operation Regent Hospital into Covid dedicated hospital, signing memorandum of understanding, 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, word boys and other officials and staff of Regent Hospital's Uttara and Mirpur branches.