Evaly CEO Rassel, his wife arrested: RAB

Rapid Action Battalion arrests Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel (first from left) and its chairman Shamina Nasrin (second from right) from their residence in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur on Thursday, 16 September 2021.
Dipu Malakar

The chief executive officer (CEO) of ecommerce platform Evaly Mohammad Rassel and the company’s chairman and his wife Shamima Nasrin have been arrested from Dhaka.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Mohammad Rassel from their residence in the capital’s Mohammadpur around 5:00pm on Thursday.

RAB additional director general (operations) colonel KM Azad confirmed Prothom Alo.

Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel sits on a couch at his residence in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur during a raid of Rapid Action Battalion on Thursday, 16 September 2021.
Collected

Prior to their arrest, RAB conducted a raid at Evaly CEO’s residence in the afternoon. The couple was taken to the RAB headquarter.

Earlier on Wednesday night, one of the Evaly’s customers, Arif Baker filed a case against the ecommerce CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife and chairman Shamima Nasrin with the capital’s Gulshan police station on charges of fraudulence and embezzlement.

Quoting the case statements, Gulshan police said customer Arif Baker and his friends gave some orders to the company after being attracted by their superb advertisement.

Arif Baker paid Tk 310,597 for various products from 29 May to 16 June through online banking and using a card of a bank. The company promised to repay in full in case it failed to deliver the products in seven to 45 days.

Lastly, he contacted Evaly’s customer care centre on 5 September and failed to receive the products. Before that, the firm delayed the delivery of the products as many times as he contacted with them.

Rapid Action Battalion arrests Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel from his residence in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur on Thursday, 16 September 2021.
Dipu Malakar

According to the complaint, three people including Arif Baker went to Evaly’s office on Dhanmondi road no. 14 on 9 September to meet the company’s CEO Mohammad Rassel but they were barred.

After that, Arif Baker and their friends tried to talk to the company’s representatives at Evaly’s office but the later shouted at them.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion stand guard in front of Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel’s residence in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur during a raid on Thursday, 16 September 2021.
Collected

At one point, Evaly chief executive officer Mohammad Rassel threatened with life them from his office and refused to return their money. At that time, Evaly chairman also came and refused to delivery their products and return the money. She also threatened and extremely misbehaved with them.

The plaintiff, in the complaint, stated Evaly cheated with innumerable numbers of customers like him in the name of selling products. Evaly company has reportedly misappropriated Tk 7-8 billion (700-800 crore).