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Former DG of health Azad was granted bail after surrendering

Former Director General of the Department of Health, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad  in the case of being involved in corruption with the Chairman of the Regent Hospital Shahed Karim  has surrendered in court and got bail.

On Thursday, Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge KM Imrul Kayesh granted bail till November 2.

Abul Kalam Azad surrendered to the court this morning through a lawyer and applied for bail. After the hearing, the court granted bail.

Earlier, Abul Kalam Azad came to the court on October 5 to surrender. But the judge was busy with another case. Therefore, he could not accept the hearing in this case. The judge asked him to come to court on Thursday. His lawyer then withdrew his surrender request.

Recently, ACC Deputy Director Farid Ahmed Patwari filed a chargesheet against six people, including Abul Kalam Azad.

The other five accused in the chargesheet are: Regent Group and Regent Hospital Chairman Mohammad Shahed Karim, former director of the health department (hospitals and clinics) Dr. Aminul Hasan, Deputy Director (Hospital-1) Dr. Md. Yunus Ali, Assistant Director (Hospital-1) Dr. Md. Shafiur Rahman and research officer Dr. Md. Didarul Islam.

In the chargesheet, the accused have been accused of colluding with each other to convert the closed Regent Hospital into a dedicated Covid Hospital without renewing the license, signing a memorandum of understanding and testing samples of 3,939 Covid patients free of cost in the lab of government institution Nipsom. From where they received a total of one crore 37 lakh 86 thousand 500 Taka by taking Tk.3500 per patient as illegal reward.

The chargesheet also alleges that the regulatory hospital’s Mirpur and Uttara branches of doctors, nurses, wardboys and other officials had taken initiative to send a draft memorandum of understanding to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with a monthly demand of Tk 1.96 crore. A total of 3 crore 34 lakh 6 thousand 500 Taka has been embezzled against the accused. They have been charged under Section 409/420/109 of the Rules and Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

Farid Ahmed Patwari filed the case against five people at the ACC-affiliated district office Dhaka-1 on September 23 last year. Abul Kalam Azad was not accused there. However, his name was included in the chargesheet as his name came up in the investigation.

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