CEO of controversial e-commerce platform Evaly Md Rassel was granted bail by a Dhaka court on Thursday in nine cases of cheque fraud. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court judges passed the orders during a hearing on the bail petitions submitted by Rassel’s lawyer advocate Ahsan Habib. However, he will not be able to walk out of jail now as he did not secure bail in other cases. Also read: Evaly chairman released from Kashimpur jail On April 6, Rassel’s wife Shamima Nasrin, Chairperson of Evaly, walked out of Kashimpur Women's Central Jail after the court granted them both bail in another six cases on condition of settling the case with the plaintiffs in different times. On September 16, last year, Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima were arrested during a raid on their house in capital’s Mohammadpur area. The owners of Evaly were allegedly involved in embezzlement of several hundred crores of taka. They were arrested after a victim filed a case against them. Also read: HC allows Evaly’s Rassel, Shamima to transfer 50 % of their shares to relatives Arif Baker lodged a case with Gulshan police station accusing the couple of stealing customers' money and fraudulence. The couple was later sent to jail .

A Dhaka Court on Tuesday placed Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel on a one-day remand in a case filed with Dhanmondi Model Police Station on charge of embezzlement and fraudulence. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Hasibul Haque passed the order when police produced him before the court after completion of his three-day remand in a case filed with Gulshan Police Station. The court also sent his wife Shamima Nasrin, chairman of the company, to jail after expiry of her 3-day remand. Police produced the duo before the court and sought seven-day remand for each in the case. Also read: Owner of e-orange.shop, 2 others land in jail

Another case has been filed against 14 people, including Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, chairman of the company,  on charge of embezzlement and fraudulence. Mohammad Quamrul Islam, another aggrieved customer and son of Junedul Islam of Old Paltan area, filed the case with Dhanmondi Model Police Station on Friday, said its officer-in-charge Ikram Ali. Akash, vice president of Evaly, Tanvir Alam, senior accounts manager, Zahedul Islam, manager, Jawadul Haque Chowdhury, senior executive, are among the accused. Read:E-commerce firms like Evaly, E-orange to face action: DMP Earlier, on September 17, Rab personnel arrested Evaly CEO Rassel and his wife Nasrin, from their Mohammadpur residence. Rassel and Shamima were arrested after an aggrieved customer, Arif Baker, lodged a case with Gulshan police station accusing them and few other company executives of embezzlement and fraudulence. A Dhaka court on Friday placed them on a three-day remand. Read: Evaly’s liabilities over Tk 1,000 crore Besides, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), an arm of the Bangladesh Bank that specializes in financial crime investigations, directed all the commercial banks and financial institutions through a common letter on August 27 to freeze all the bank accounts operated by top executives of Evaly. The Directorate of National Consumer Right Protection, a department under the Commerce Ministry, received allegations from consumers about “cheating” by Evaly. Bangladesh Bank officials said one of the major allegations against Evaly is forcing its consumers to deposit their money in the e-wallet of the firm which was totally illegal.

Mohammad Rassel, the man behind Evaly, in 2009 started his career as a coaching center teacher who by 2018 became the owner of a company with over 3,700 employees, and positioned as the country’s second largest e-commerce platform.      With year-long huge discounts and up to 150% cashback offers the platform was able to attract a huge number of customers across the country. But with complaints and irregularities it soon became a name for controversy in the e-commerce market. On September 16, after the arrest of Evaly’s CEO Mohammad Rassel and Chairperson, his wife Shamima Nasrin RAB revealed that the platform counts liabilities over Tk 1,000 crore. Though Rassel wanted to create Evaly’s brand value to sell the platform to some foreign company, the supply chain could not be maintained and liabilities kept growing, he said. The couple also admitted that they had little investment on the platform. The discount-trap was what made customers pay advance for the products that fueled the growth of this platform. On Friday afternoon a Dhaka court placed Rassel and Nasrin on a three-remand leaving millions of its customers in worries of never getting back their money and keeping the country waiting for more insights into this burning scam. From coaching center to Evaly Rassel was from Dhaka's Savar and grew up in a boarding school. After his post-graduation in 2007, he started teaching in a coaching center from 2009. In 2011, he got into the banking sector where in several banks he worked for six years and learned the mechanism behind the banking process. Meanwhile in 2013, he completed his MBA and started developing different business ideas. In 2017, he developed a company for kids' products that eventually became the Kidz Diaper brand. Selling the diaper brand Rassel established Evaly in December 2018, making himself the CEO and his wife Nasrin the chairman of the e-commerce platform. Evaly mechanism With over 4.4 million registered customers the platform has always made year-long huge discounts and cashback offers. With advanced payments from the customers the platform grabbed more customers by increasing the level of promotion, i.e. increasing the discount. In this manner the platform used customers’ money to bring more money into its account; more similar to a Ponzi scheme: advance payment from customers - use the money to run massive promotion campaigns - get more money – repeat. According to Rassel, Evaly followed the strategy of making 1: 2 attractive deal offers more like the foreign e-commerce platforms and extracted money from the manufacturers-customers supply chain. His eventual plan was to build brand value of the platform to sell it at a huge price - something he almost thought he had with the Jamuna Group in the final stretch. All the liabilities too would  of course be transferred.  For this reason, even after the notices from the ministry asking for transaction records, Evaly did not disclose any such information - it rather sought six months more, during which Rassell the showman would surely try and get someone to pay for his greatest trick. But this time the show was over, and no-one was buying.

A Dhaka court  placed Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, the chairman of the troubled company, on a three-day remand on Friday, a day after the couple was arrested on charges of embezzlement and fraudulence. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Atiqul Islam passed the order after rejecting their bail plea on Friday noon. Read: Evaly CEO, chairman arrested from Mohammadpur residence The couple was arrested by Rab on Thursday from their flat in Mohammadpur. They were produced before court at noon. Aminul Islam, Inspector (Investigation) of Gulshan Police Station, said police sought 10-day remand for Rassel and Shamima for quizzing them over the allegation that they misappropriated several hundred crores of taka taken in advance from the e-commerce company’s customers and deceiving them by not delivering the products. During interrogation after arrest Rassel informed that Evaly has liabilities of more than TK 1,000 crore, Khandaker Al Moin, Rab's Legal and Media wing director revealed during a press briefing at the elite force’s headquarters on Friday. Read:Travel ban imposed on Evaly chairman, MD The Evaly couple was held after an aggrieved customer Arif Baker lodged a case with Gulshan police station accusing Rassel, Shamina and few other company executives of embezzlement and fraudulence. Sub-inspector Ahidul Islam, the investigation officer of the case, said the case was registered over the allegation of embezzlement of money and fraudulence. Besides, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), an arm of the Bangladesh Bank that specializes in financial crime investigations, directed all commercial banks and financial institutions through a common letter on August 27 to freeze all the bank accounts operated by top executives of Evaly. Read: Evaly is under ACC probe for alleged misappropriation The Directorate of National Consumer Right Protection, a department under the commerce ministry, also received allegations from consumers about “cheating” by Evaly. Bangladesh Bank officials said that one of the major allegations against Evaly is forcing its consumers to deposit their money in the e-wallet of the firm which was totally illegal.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin, the chairman of the company, conducting a raid on their house at Mohammadpur in the city. Sources at the Rab headquarters said the elite force members cordoned off the multi-storey building at Sir Sayed Road, Mohammadpur around 3:30 pm and arrested them around 5 pm. The owners of Evaly, an e-commerce firm, were allegedly involved in embezzlement of several hundred crores of taka. They were arrested after a victim filed a case against them. Read: Evaly is under ACC probe for alleged misappropriation Earlier, on Wednesday night, a victim, Arif Baker, lodged a case with Gulshan police station accusing the couple. Sub-inspector Ahidul Islam, the investigating officer of the case, said the case was registered over the allegation of embezzlement of money and fraudulence.