The website of Evaly, an e-commerce platform that is currently embroiled in controversy, yesterday became unavailable as its server was down, according to a post on the company's official Facebook page.

Evaly's banking activities have been temporarily halted as its Chairperson Shamima Nasrin and Managing Director Mohammad Rassel were recently placed behind bars, it said.

Under these circumstances, uncertainty emerged over how Evaly would bear the cost of its servers and office maintenance alongside the salaries paid to employees.

"We are sincerely sorry that our servers have gone down and our efforts to restart the servers are ongoing," the company said.

The Daily Star tried to contact Mahbi Chowdhury, senior vice president of Evaly, for a comment on the matter but he did not respond by the time this report was filed.

The e-commerce company, which grabbed a huge number of customers by  offering eye-catching discounts on popular products such as smartphones  and motorcycles, came under the spotlight amid rising allegations from  customers and merchants regarding its failure to deliver products,  payments or refunds despite taking advance payments.

With this backdrop, the commerce ministry had earlier asked various government agencies, including the home ministry and Anti-Corruption Commission, to take the required action.

On September 16, Rapid Action Battalion arrested Evaly's chairperson and managing director on the grounds of numerous cases filed by customers.

Two days later, the company declared that its employees would continue to work from home until further notice.

In its submissions to the commerce ministry in August and early September, Evaly said its total liabilities stood at Tk 543 crore, including Tk 311 crore to customers while its dues to merchants were Tk 205 crore.

However, according to Evaly's data obtained by The Daily Star, the e-commerce company owes at least Tk 408 crore to 1,026 sellers.

In its social media post, Evaly said its chief executives have informed through their lawyers that it is possible to overcome all the complexities if given four months' time.

Moniruzzaman Rony, a businessperson, said he saw the notice on Evaly's verified Facebook page regarding its website closure.

"Following the notice, I have nothing to do but to give up hope of getting delivery of the product I ordered," he added.

Rony ordered some products, including mobile phones and microwave ovens, through Evaly by paying Tk 1 lakh against the company's T10 offer in July.

The whereabouts of his products, which were supposed to be delivered within ten working days, still remain unknown.