ACC files case against Azad, Sabrina

Staff Reporter :

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against the former director general (DG) of the Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), Abul Kalam Azad, and JKG Health Care chairperson Dr. Sabrina Sharmin Hosein, along with five others, on charges of cheating the public by preparing 15,460 fake COVID-19 test reports.
The accused are implicated in a health sector scam involving the embezzlement of money by fraudulently collecting fees for COVID-19 tests and providing false and fake reports without conducting proper tests. ACC Assistant Director Afnan Jannat Keya filed the case with the commission’s Integrated District Office-1 in Dhaka, according to ACC public relations officer Aktarul Islam.
The other accused include Sabrina’s
husband and JKG Health Care Managing Director Ariful Chowdhury, two JKG staff members ASM Saeed Chowdhury and Humayun Kabir alias Himu, Tanzina Patwari, and JKG Health Care Proprietor Zebunnesa Rima.
According to the case statement, Dr. Sabrina Sharmin Hussain, while working as a registrar in the Cardiac Surgery Department of the National Heart Institute, benefited financially by using the identity of the chairman of JKG Health Care without the authorities’ permission.
Dr. Sabrina, in collusion with the other accused, including DGHS Director General Professor Azad, assisted her husband Ariful Chowdhury’s company, JKG Health Care, in obtaining permission to collect COVID-19 samples.
Following instructions from Sabrina and her husband Ariful, their office staff went door to door, charging approximately Tk 5,000 to 8,000 as a test fee for each COVID-19 test, and prepared fake and forged reports without conducting proper tests.