Tk2,530, blank cheques found at Evaly’s vaults

A number of blank cheques of different banks and Tk2,530 were found after breaking two vaults of the controversial e-commerce platform Evaly in its office in the Dhanmondi area of the capital on Monday.

The two vaults were broken between 3pm and 5pm yesterday in the presence of the members of the Evaly board formed by the High Court, and Dhaka South City Corporation Executive Magistrate Asfia Sirat.

Among the members, retired judge of the Appellate Division AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and former Additional Secretary Mahbub Kabir Milon, who has been appointed managing director (MD) of Evaly, were present there.

During the drive, Manik, chairman of Evaly board, said, "There is nothing expensive, everything is useless."

He said the High Court directed Evaly chief Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin to disclose the combination numbers of the lockers.

"As the committee did not receive anything from them, the decision was taken to break open the lockers," he added.

Later, at a press conference, the Evaly board said they have found that Evaly has Tk2.45 crore deposited in its accounts at Southeast and City Bank and that they have got the permission of the authorities to withdraw the money.

The server of Evaly has been shut down as the supervisor of the server, Amazon.com, has said it will not reopen it unless the Tk6 crore in dues is cleared, Manik told the media, adding without a server, it is not possible to know how much money Evaly owes to which of its customers and which customer ordered which product.

Mentioning that efforts are underway to rescue the server, he, however, said it is impossible to clear the Tk6 crore in dues. Negotiations are on with Amazon in this regard, he added.

"It is not known how much money Evaly has got stuck in the gateway. However, some Tk26 crore is there in five gateways including bKash and Nagad. With this, some of the customers might be refunded but it requires directives from the High Court," said Manik.

He also said there are a number of refrigerators, laptops, mobile phones and other electronic devices in the Savar warehouse of Evaly, which will be delivered to the buyers as per the court order.

The new board of Evaly also said they have found information about 24 vehicles, which are owned by the company. Of these, 16 are vans while some are high-end ones. Those in good condition will be sold at public auctions and the old ones will be either auctioned off or rented out, they added.

There are two types of creditors of Evaly. One group buys products from Evaly, the other is suppliers or merchandisers.

Manik said customers would be repaid in the first place while merchandisers will be paid later. "For this, the provisions of the company law must be obeyed. It is not a matter of seven days."

Evaly's controversial business strategy has come to the fore following a central bank inspection report on the e-commerce firm last year.

On 16 September 2021, an embezzlement case was filed against Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, also the chairman of the company, with the Gulshan police station.

A few hours later, the RAB raided their house in Mohammadpur and arrested the couple.

Two days into the arrest of Rassel and Shamima in a case filed by a customer, a supplier on Saturday night lodged a case against the couple and 25 more officials of the controversial e-commerce platform.

Amid the mismanagement at Evaly, the government formed a governing board with external experts including bureaucrats to look after the online shopping platform on 26 October 2021.