Shamima Nasrin included as defendant in Evaly liquidation case

Shamima Nasrin, former chairman of controversial e-commerce platform Evaly, has become a party as a defendant in the Evaly winding-up case which is now under trial in the High Court.

The HC bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar on Tuesday passed the order after hearing the plea of Shamima to be included in the case as a defendant.

Shamim Mehedi represented Shamima Nasrin in the court while Barrister Syed Mahsib Hossain moved for the plaintiff in the liquidation case. 

Lawyers said the court included Shamima in the case as the 15th defendant. 

After the order, Barrister Syed Mahsib Hossain said, "In the application, Shamima Nasreen mentioned that 20% out of 50% shares of Evaly which she owned have already been transferred in the name of her mother and her brother-in-law (her sister's husband)."

Following a petition to wind up the company by a customer named Farhad Hossain, the HC on 22 September of last year put a moratorium on the sale or transfer of all movable and immovable properties of Evaly.

The court also issued a ruling, asking why a liquidator should not be appointed to wind down the e-commerce platform immediately.

The court on 18 October 2021 formed a four-member new board to manage, control and assess the liabilities of the e-commerce platform.

According to Evaly's assessment, it has assets amounting to Tk121 crore, while it owes customers and merchants more than Tk1,000 crore.

The company took money as advance payments, luring people with massive discounts on products on its site and promising delivery within 7-45 days. However, many buyers are yet to receive the items they ordered despite the expiry of the promised delivery deadline.

In some instances, Evaly offered refund cheques to customers following their failure to deliver, but in many cases, the cheques bounced because of insufficient funds in Evaly's bank account.

Several cases have been filed against Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin who is the chairman of the company, on allegations of embezzlement and cheque fraud. The couple was arrested on 16 September.

Earlier on 6 April, Shamima Nasrin was freed from jail on bail.