Ex-additional secretary Mahbub Kabir made MD of Evaly

The High Court (HC) on Monday appointed Mahbub Kabir, officer on special duty (OSD) and former additional secretary of Railway Ministry as the managing director (MD) of controversial e-commerce platform, Evaly.

The HC also formed a four-member new board of Evaly which will be led by former Appellate Division Judge, AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik.

Other members of the new board are former LGRD secretary, Mohammad Rezaul Ahsan, Chartered Accountant, Fakhruddin Ahmmed and Supreme Court lawyer, Barrister Khan Mohammad Shameem Aziz.

Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar passed the order while Barrister Sayed Mahsib Hossain stood for the plea that was filed by a customer, Md Farhad Hossen seeking court directives for winding up Evaly and refund.

After the hearing, Sayed Mahsib Hossain quoting the HC told journalists that "The new board will call its first meeting as soon as possible after getting the written order of the court. It will also function same as a normal company board. The board has been directed to take charges of the company along with all records and papers. The company's all assets will be handed over to the board.'

"The Board will figure out the assets and liabilities of Evaly and if necessary, will take steps to operate audit. After the audit, if the board considers that the company is not competent to continue, board members will decide to wind up the controversial e-commerce platform.", he said.

Earlier on 30 September, the HC directed the registrar of the Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) to submit the papers of Evaly.

The court had also put a moratorium on the sale or transfer of all movable and immovable properties of Evaly.

Later, the judge had said that the court would form a four-member board with a former judge, a chartered accountant, a secretary and a lawyer – to assess the liabilities of Evaly.

On 13 October, the commerce ministry proposed the names of three former secretaries for the board.

According to Evaly's own assessment, it has assets amounting to Tk121 crore, while it owes customers and merchants more than Tk1,000 crore.

The company took money in advance payments, luring people with massive discounts on products on its site and promising delivery within 7-45 days.

However, many buyers are yet to receive the items they ordered even after the promised delivery deadline.

In some cases, Evaly offered refund to customers following their failure to deliver, but in many cases, the cheques bounced because of insufficient funds in Evaly's bank account.

Several cases have been filed against Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel, and his wife Shamima Nasrin who is the chairman of the company, on allegations of embezzlement and cheque fraud. The couple was arrested on 16 September.