Election Commission blocks Shahed’s NID

The Directorate General of Health Services on Monday sent documents of the agreement and other dealings between the DGHS and Regent Hospital to the Anti-Corruption Commission while the Election Commission blocked the national identity card of the private health facility owner Mohammad Shahed, who was detained for COVID-19 certificate forgery.

‘The EC blocked the NID of Regent Hospital owner Shahed for he changed his name, date of birth and other information through forgery and it is now investigating to find people involved in the process at the EC’s end,’ EC secretary M Alamgir told reporters at a press briefing at Nirbachan Bhavan in the capital.

He said that the commission got a complaint that Shahed, now in police remand in the case of issuing fake COVID-19 reports, changed his information in his NID.

He said that the commission decided to verify Shahed’s certificates issued by the British Council as he submitted O Level certificate to change his name and date of birth.

Shahed Karim became Mohammad Shahed after the change, the EC secretary said and added that the commission would file a case against Shahed if he was found guilty.

He said Shahed initially submitted an SSC certificate in which the name of educational institution was Satkhira Government High School.

Additionally, the ACC secretary M Dilwar Bakth told reporters that the Directorate General of Health Services on Monday provided the documents which its inquiry team sought.

He said that the commission also interrogated three more officers of the Central Medical Stores Depot as part of the commission’s inquiry into alleged irregularities and corruption in the procurement of healthcare products, including N-95 masks.

They are — CMSD senior storekeeper M Yousuf Fakir, deputy director Jakir Hossain and former medical officer Ziaul Haque.

Meanwhile, the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Monday said they were looking for information on how Regent Group chairman Shahed learnt how to cheat people as they were investigating details of his academic background.

So far, he claimed he took a degree on film and acting in the Indian city of Pune after completion of his O Level, said investigator Kazi Shafiqul Alam, the deputy commissioner of the DB’s Uttara division.

‘We have three more days to ask him how he learnt the tricks to cheat people and what was his actual educational qualification,’ he told New Age on Monday.

Shafiqul also hinted at conducting more raids with him in the coming days if they received specific information.

On Sunday, an ACC team led by its deputy director Abu Bakar Siddique visited the DGHS to collect some documents related to an investigation into the agreement between the department and Regent Hospital that allegedly falsified more than 6,000 COVID-19 certificates after the Rapid Action Battalion busted the scam on July 6.

The DB on Sunday said that they seized a car along with a pistol, a bullet, alcohol and contraband syrup in a drive carried out with Shahed, now on a 10-day remand.

Two more cases — one under the arms act and the special powers act — were filed with Uttara Paschim police station following the incident, the DMP official said.

The RAB and other police units were yet to confirm the exact number of cases filed against him so far.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate court additional public prosecutor Abdus Sattar Dulal said he used different names in different times, so it was difficult to find out all the cases against him.

The prosecutor also said Shahed was wanted in at least two fraudulence cases. 

Rapid Action Battalion legal and media wing director Lieutenant Colonel Ashik Billah on Sunday shared with a selective group of journalists that they received a total of 120 complaints through their hotline on Friday.

They also received 20 emails describing various allegations against him.

According to the RAB, Shahed, an accused in over 50 cases filed with different police stations, mostly related to business fraud and deceiving money from individual, was arrested on the Sathkhira border while he was trying to flee to India to avoid arrest.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net