Covid test scam: JKG's Dr Sabrina, 7 other officials jailed for 11 years each

A Dhaka court on Tuesday sentenced eight top officials of JKG Health Care, including its Chairman Dr Sabrina Chowdhury and CEO Ariful Haque Chowdhury, to 11 years’ imprisonment in a case filed over coronavirus test fraud.

Dhaka additional chief magistrate Md Tofazzal Hossain handed down the punishment to Ariful Haque Chowdhury, the CEO, his wife Dr Sabrina Sharmin Hussain, and executives -- Shafiqul Islam, Humayun Kabir, his wife Tanzina Patwari, Saeed Chowdhury, Zebunessa Rima and Biplab Das -- after holding them guilty.

Sabrina has been in jail since her arrest in the case on July 12 in 2020. Her husband and others were arrested on June 23 from JKG Healthcare's office at Confidence Tower in the posh Gulshan area of Dhaka.

JKG Healthcare allegedly issued 27,000 coronavirus reports without following proper test procedures and most of them turned out to be fake.

On August 20, a Dhaka court framed charges against Sabrina and seven others in the case. On August 31, the Election Commission filed another case against Sabrina for possessing two National Identity Cards.

As per the case statement, Sabrina used two different names of her husband in two NIDs and reduced her age in one of them.

The two NIDs were blocked by authorities after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) sought details from the Election Commission over the scam.