Sabrina, Arif among 8 denied bail in fake Covid-19 test report scam
Indictment hearing fixed on August 20
A Dhaka court on Thursday has denied bail to eight people, including Dr Sabrina Arif Chowdhury, JKG Health Care chairman and its CEO Ariful Haque Chowdhury, in a case filed over providing fake coronavirus (Covid-19) test reports.
At the same time, the court has set August 20 for hearing on the charge framing against the accused.
Sarafuzzaman Ansari, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate, has passed the order on Thursday morning.
The case was scheduled for hearing on Thursday. However, five of the accused applied for time as they did not get the case documents.
Granting the application, the judge fixed August 20 for the next hearing.
On the other part, when eight accused applied for bail, the judge turned down the appeal.
Earlier on June 6, Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Zulfikar Hayat had seen the charge sheet in the case. Then, he transferred the case to the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sarafuzzaman Ansari.
The court had fixed August 13 for the hearing of charge framing against eight accused, including Sabrina and Arif.
The other accused in the case are Abu Saeed Chowdhury, Humayun Kabir Himu, Tanjila Patwari, Biplob Das, Shafiqul Islam Romeo and Jebunnesa.
It is mentionable that a Kamal Hossain filed the case at Tejgaon Police Station on June 15 on the charges of providing false coronavirus report.
Liakat Ali, an inspector of the Detective Branch, filed the charge sheet against eight people including Sabrina and Arif, in the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on August 5.
The charge sheet mentions Sabrina and Arif as the prime accused and the other people had helped them to commit the fraudulent act.
JKG Healthcare provided coronavirus test reports to 27,000 people from across the country including Dhaka. And most of the reports were proven false.
Under this allegation, the institution was raided on 23 June, and sealed off. Later a case was filed against them at the Tejgaon Police Station.
