Khulna hospital technologist decamps with 2.5C Covid test fees

A medical technologist (lab) at Khulna General Hospital has allegedly decamped with around Tk2.5 crore collected from Covid-19 tests of people going abroad.

The accused is Prokash Kumar Das, 45, Khulna Civil Surgeon Dr Niaz Mohammad confirmed on Tuesday.

He said his office is preparing to file a case against him.

Sources at the Civil Surgeon’s office said Prakash was in charge of collecting the fees for Covid-19 test samples taken from the people going abroad.

He had been manipulating the number of people taking the tests since July 2 in 2020 to gain illegal financial benefits, according to the allegation.

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Suspecting foul play, an inquiry committee was formed against Prakash on 22 August. According to the inquiry report, the amount deposited was about Tk2.58 crore less than the amount that was supposed to be received.

Later, an explanation was sought from him on 22 September and he promised to provide it the following day.

Since then he has been missing, the office said.

Civil surgeon Dr Niaz said the amount of embezzled money was about Tk2.58 crore. The Department of Health and the Health Ministry have already been informed of the incident.