Suspect in Bangladesh fake COVID-19 testing ring appears in court

A Bangladeshi doctor accused of involvement in a scheme that entails falsifying thousands of COVID-19 test results for patients appeared at a Dhaka court on Friday (July 17).

Sabrina Arif Chowdhury, Chairman of JKG Health Care, was handed a two-day pretrial detention by the court, according to court authorities.

Chowdhury and several other suspects have been detained in connection with the fake testing ring. The owner of the two hospitals where the tests were given, Mohammad Shahed, alias Shahed Karim, was arrested on Wednesday (July 15) after a nine-day manhunt when he was caught at a border river trying to flee to India, clad in a burqa, local media reported.

As of Friday, Bangladesh had a total of 199,357 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,547 deaths, according to health officials.