Sabrina, Arif get 11 years

A Dhaka court awards eight persons, including JKG Health Care chairman Dr Sabrina Arif Chowdhury, 11 years of rigorous imprisonment each in a case filed over issuing fake Covid-19 certificates.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court Judge Tofazzal Hossain delivered a verdict in the presence of the convicts in a packed courtroom on Tuesday.
Other convicts are Sabrina's husband and JKG Health Care's CEO Ariful Chowdhury, executive officer Shafiqul Islam, graphic designer Humayun Kabir Himu and employees Tanzina Patwary, Jebunnesa Rima, Abu Sayeed Chowdhury and Biplob Das.
In the verdict, the judge said the prosecution was able to prove the charges brought against all the accused of issuing fake Covid-19 certificates to the complainant beyond doubt.
He also fined them Tk 11,000 each, in default of which they will have to suffer 11 more months in prison.
The court said the time that the convicts have already spent in jail will be deducted from their sentence.
They were given four years in each of two charges of certificate forgery and three years for cheating.
The sentences of all three charges will be enforced in phases. So, they all have to spend 11 years in jail.
Lawyers Ehsanul Haque Shomaji, Faruq Ahammad and others appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the accused while public prosecutors Abdullah Abu and Azad Rahman represented the state.
JKG Health Care came under scanner in the early months of the pandemic for doctoring reports without testing specimens of suspected Covid-19 patients.
The involvement of Dr Sabrina, a cardiac surgeon in government service, in the scandal added a twist to the trickery.

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