DU asst registrar Sharmin on 3-day remand
The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Saturday started interrogating Dhaka University assistant registrar Sharmin Jahan, also the owner of Aparajita International Company, for three days in police custody but were yet to find the sources of the counterfeit N95 respirators supplied to the BSMMU.
In respond to a media query over the source of the mask, DB deputy commissioner (Ramna) HM Azimul Haque, however, said on Saturday evening, ‘Why do you [media] need to know the source of it. Let us investigate it first.’
He, however, blamed the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University authorities for not handing over the masks till Saturday evening.
Earlier on June 27, the university authorities issued a work order to the Aparajita for 11,000 pieces of face masks.
The BSMMU proctor physician Syed Mozaffor Ahmed, who filed the case against former Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Sharmin Jahan on Thursday, said on Saturday that the investigators had already seized the counterfeit masks in the morning as their evidence.
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Mozaffor told New Age that they did not provide those masks to be used by physicians and medical staff after they discovered that the masks bore a misspelled logo, which was unusual for an American product.
‘When we checked how it was spelled on the official website of 3M, the US company that supplied the masks, we realised that the supplied ones were counterfeits,’ he said.
A metropolitan magistrate, Moinul Islam, on Saturday remanded Sharmin for three days in police custody over the supply of the counterfeit masks.
During the hearing, Sharmin stated that her company supplied the masks in four phases and the products of two phases were of bad quality and the authorities complained to her in a letter on July 18.
A team of detectives arrested Sharmin at Shahbagh in the capital at about 10:00pm in connection with the case lodged with Shahbagh police station by BSMMU.
Sharmin Jahan, an assistant registrar at Dhaka University and the proprietor of the Aparajita International, was also former president of Bangladesh Chhatra League at Kuwait Maitry Hall unit in 2002.
The BSMMU proctor physician Mozaffor accused Sharmin of cheating and dishonestly inducing deliver of property, and criminal breach of trust.
The police registered the case against Sharmin under Sections 406 and 420 of the Penal Code while the complaint stated that the crime was committed between June 27 and July 13.
The complaint stated that the Aparajita International supplied 3,460 out of 11,000 pieces of masks between June 30 and July 13 in four phases and they were found to be of below standard while many were also torn.
It also said products shipped from US could not bear wrong spelling.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
