Dr. Sabrina, husband Arif sentenced 11yrs imprisonment

A Dhaka court today has sentenced 11 years’ imprisonment to JKG Health Care chairman Dr Sabrina Arif Chowdhury and her husband, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of JKG Ariful Haque Chowdhury in a case filed for giving ‘fake’ coronavirus sample test results.

Dhaka Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Tofazzal Hossain passed the verdict on Tuesday noon.

The other accused are Sabrina's husband JKG Health Care CEO Ariful Huque Chowdhury, Shafiqul Islam Romeo, Humayun Kabir Himu, Himu's wife Tanzina Patwary, Jebunnesa Rima, Abu Sayeed Chowdhury and Biplab Das.

Earlier, the accused were brought to the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court premises by a prison van from Kashimpur Central Jail in the morning. Later, Sabrina and Ariful were kept in the courtroom.

On June 29, after presenting arguments from both sides, Judge Tofazzal Hossain fixed the day for announcing the verdict.

Special Public Prosecutor (PP) Azad Rahman expressed hope that the accused will be sentenced to a “maximum of seven years in jail” in the verdict. The court accepted the testimony of 26 out of the 40 witnesses in the case.

According to the case details, JKG Health Care collected samples for the Covid-19 test in different parts of the country including Dhaka and gave reports to 27,000 people without testing them. Most of it is marked as “fake”. The company was sealed on June 23, 2020.

Later, when a case was filed against Dr. Sabrina and her husband Ariful Chowdhury with Tejgaon police station, both were arrested by the law enforcement agencies.

On August 5 of that year, DB police inspector Liaquat Ali filed a chargesheet against eight accused, including Sabrina-Arif, in the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court. The chargesheet named Sabrina and Arif as “the masterminds of the fraud” and the other accused as “accomplices” in the fraud and forgery.