Ministry high officials played it for JKG

Two additional secretaries of the health ministry and two directors of the health directorate allegedly helped JKG Healthcare CEO Ariful Chaudhury to get the contract for collecting Covid-19 test samples. 

Ariful told it to police during interrogation.

He also said these officials were planning to misappropriate a portion of Tk 500 crore allocated to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on March 11 to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

"The two DGHS directors asked Ariful to submit the proposal to the directorate," said a detective branch (DB) official involved with the investigation.

The investigators further learnt that JKG had made around TK 3.5 crore by issuing fake Covid-19 test results.

Ariful didn't deposit the money at banks, police said, adding that he kept the amount in cash to some people.

"We have identified them and will soon conduct a drive to recover the money," said the official.

Asked if they would interrogate the government officials, he said, "As they are government employees, we need some concrete evidence to interrogate them."

He even refused to disclose names of the officials in question.

About Ariful's wife Sabrina Arif Chaudhury, Abdul Baten, additional commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said she used to capitalise on her "face value".

"She had connections with many offices, including the DGHS," the DB official said.

Following her arrest, the health ministry suspended cardiac surgeon Sabrina from the post of registrar at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases for "violating rules".

Oval Group, the company owned by Sabrina's husband Ariful, won several government contracts, including some from the health ministry because of her lobbying, officers said.

JKG Health Care started its journey in 2015 as a non-profit organisation.

Investigators said that they didn't find any documents mentioning that JKG was a sister concern of Oval Group, adding that JKG had no trade licence when it got the permission to collect samples for coronavirus tests.

DGHS official Prof Nasima earlier told this newspaper that they didn't check JKG's licence at that time since they permitted them only for voluntary services -- to set up booths and collect samples.

JKG got the approval from the DGHS on April 6 and started collecting samples for free through their 44 kiosks in Dhaka, Narayanganj and other regions.

But it has been found in police investigation that the organisation started collecting samples from homes in exchange for money despite having no approval to do so.

The scam was busted on June 24 after Tejgaon police arrested several employees of the Oval Group, including its CEO Ariful, over their alleged involvement in issuing fake Covid-19 test reports.

Police said although JKG Health Care had no permission to collect Covid-19 test samples from people's homes, they would do so through their two online platforms -- Booking BD and Health Care.

For such home services, they would charge Tk 5,000 from locals and USD 100 from foreigners.

After investigation, police found all the test results of the samples collected from homes were fake.

Both Sabrina and Ariful were placed on remands for second time.

Sabrina's remand ended yesterday while Ariful's remand will end today.

Police said they would seek remand for Ariful again.