'Evaly manager' detained for not delivering products on time

A mobile court has arrested "a manager and two staff of e-commerce platform Evaly"  in Manikganj on Monday afternoon for not providing products to the customers timely even after taking the money in advance.

However, in a statement in the evening, Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel said Evaly has no branch operations and they have no relations with the detainees.

"Recently an office was set up in the name of Evaly at Paril Bazar area in Singair. They started selling products luring customers with more profit and attractive offers. But they were not delivering products to the customers for past few months," the Singair Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Runa Laila, who led the mobile court, said.  

"They took a trade license from the local chairman for opening an office for e-commerce shop there. They used to conduct transaction of around Tk1 crore daily though mobile banking and cash. There are complaints that they took money from people in assurance of delivering products which they never did," Runa Laila added.

"The detainees used to roam around the area wearing Evaly's T-shirts and the office has been set up in the name of Evaly as well. Even a signboard of Evaly is also present in front of the office. However, they could not show any valid paperwork for their business without the trade license," she further said.

"Following several allegations from the local people, we raided the office on Monday afternoon. Manager of the Evaly branch Biplob and two other staff were nabbed from the office and we seized around Tk39 lakh," she added.

Runa Laila also said that they are in the process of filing a case against them with Singair police station and sending them to jail through the court.

On condition of anonymity, a government employee from Paril village said that Biplob Hossain, through another person, gave him a proposal to invest Tk4 lakh in the business. He was assured that Tk2 lakh will be given as return on investment every 15 days. If anyone wants to take back the invested money at any time, it will be refunded immediately. However, he said that he did not go ahead with the deal as he thought it was too risky when he heard about the huge profit margin.

Hours after the detention, Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel issued a statement saying Evaly has no branch operations. They just have only one office at Dhanmandi in the capital. He also claimed that Evaly has no relation with the three persons detained with money in Manikganj.

Evaly commenced with a full-fledged domestic initiative on December 16, 2018. Within a few days, the company started to gain popularity with startling offers and attractive branding. However, it has become talk of the town over past few months due to its controversial business model of product delivery.