Regent Hospital's Shahed arrested, sent to jail in Tk2.16cr cheque dishonour case

A Dhaka court today (20 July) sent Regent Group and Regent Hospital Chairman Mohammad Shahed to jail after he was arrested in connection with a Tk2.16 crore cheque dishonour case filed by Mercantile Cooperative Bank.

Shahed was arrested earlier in the day from the capital's ECB Chattar area and handed over to Pallabi Police Station following a requisition from the police station.

He was later produced before Dhaka Joint Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court-5, where Judge Md Sadiq Ahmed ordered that he be sent to jail after hearing the matter.

Confirming the development to The Business Standard, Shahed's lawyer, Mohammad Dabir Uddin, said his client had already spent four and a half years in prison when the cheque dishonour case was filed and had not been shown arrested in the case at that time.

According to the case statement, Shahed took a Tk2.16 crore business loan from Mercantile Cooperative Bank in 2015 and deposited a cheque of the same amount as security.

The cheque was later dishonoured after he failed to repay the loan, prompting the bank to file a case under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.

Following the trial, the court on 4 May, 2025 sentenced Shahed to one year's imprisonment and fined him Tk2.16 crore – equivalent to the value of the dishonoured cheque. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued against him.

Meanwhile, Pallabi Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Hasan Basir said Shahed claimed he had already secured bail in connection with the arrest warrant.

"We will verify his legal documents after bringing him to the station before deciding on the next course of action," the OC said.

Shahed first came under national scrutiny in July 2020 after the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) raided Regent Hospital in Uttara and seized fake Covid-19 test reports.

RAB subsequently filed a case against Shahed and 16 others with Uttara West Police Station, accusing them of issuing forged Covid-19 test certificates.

On 15 July, 2020, RAB arrested Shahed near the Satkhira border. He was later taken to Uttara, where law enforcers recovered firearms during a subsequent operation.

Since then, Shahed has faced multiple criminal cases involving allegations of fraud, forgery and deception.

On 28 September, 2020, a court sentenced him to life imprisonment in an Arms Act case.

He was later sentenced to three years' imprisonment on 21 August 2023 in a case over acquiring assets beyond his known sources of income.

Earlier, in 2010, Shahed had also been sentenced to six months' imprisonment in a cheque fraud case.

He was released from prison on bail on 4 September, 2024.