The government has imposed a travel ban on Regent Gtoup Chairman Md Shahed, meaning he can no longer leave the country.

Concerned department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) issued a letter to immigration police in this regard.

A higher official of police headquarters confirmed the news.

Earlier on Tuesday night, Inspector Zulhas Mia of RAB-1 filed a case against Regent Gtoup Chairman Md Shahed, its Managing Director Masud Parvez and 15 others on charges of issuing fake Covid-19 test results and charging patients for the test with Uttara West Police Station.

Before the case was filed, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) directed the authorities of Regent Hospital to shut down their Uttara branch after a mobile court found discrepancies and sealed off the head office and Uttara and Mirpur branches of the private hospital.

The chairman, managing director and seven others are on the run while Rab arrested the eight staffers during their drive at Uttara branch on Monday.

RAB said the hospital authorities issued more than 10,000 Covid-19 test results. Around 4,200 samples were tested at different government labs, but they threw away the rest of the samples, prepared fake reports and handed them to people.

The hospital authorities took Tk3,500 for each test, meaning they embezzled more than Tk3.5 crore, despite having an agreement with the government on conducting tests and providing free treatment, RAB said.

RAB also said: “The licence of the hospital expired in 2014. The ICU of the hospital is not up to the mark. We found surgical items, which expired five to six months ago, at the hospital’s medicine store.”