Shahed gets life sentence in arms case

  Regent Group chairman Mohammad Shahed alias Shahed Karim

Bangladesh Desk: A Dhaka court on Monday sentenced Regent Group chairman Mohammad Shahed alias Shahed Karim for life in jail in an arms case filed against him.

Judge KM Imrul Kayes handed out the verdict, the first verdict in among 73 cases lodged against Shahed.

The court also handed him seven years jail sentence for keeping bullet in his possession. He will serve both the jail sentences simultaneously, said additional public prosecutor Tapash Kumar Paul.

A total of 11 prosecution witnesses were examined in the court during the trial process.

The court on August 27 framed charges against Shahed.

The Detective Branch filed the case against Shahed with the Uttara West police station under the Arms Act after conducting a drive with Shahed in Dhaka’s Uttara area on July 19, days after he had been remanded in custody by a metropolitan magistrate court.

Detectives said that during the drive they seized a pistol, a bullet, a magazine, 10 bottles of phensedyl, and five bottles of liquor from an abandoned SUV on Sonargaon Janapath Road at Uttara.

They also filed another case against Shahed under the Narcotics Control Act with the same police station.

On July 15, Rapid Action Battalion arrested Shahed at a place in the frontiers in Satkhira in a case filed over the issuance of over 6,000 fake COVID-19 test certificates by his Regent Hospital.

On July 6, RAB separately raided the Uttara and Mirpur branches of the hospital and arrested eight people for issuing forged COVID-19 certificates and collecting money from COVID-19 patients.

On July 7, RAB filed a case against 17 people, including Shahed, for the test scams.

Most of the 73 cases he has been facing are for cheating people.