High court forms committee headed by ex-justice to run Evaly

The High Court (HC) has formed a four-member board today to assess the liabilities of the controversial e-commerce platform Evaly.

Former justice Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik will lead the board.

The board is supposed to consist of a former judge, a chartered accountant, a secretary and a lawyer. However, the names of the other board members could not be known immediately.

Earlier, a plea was filed by a disgruntled customer named Md Farhad Hossen seeking court directives for winding up Evaly. He demanded a refund from the liquidation of Evaly's property.

On 30 September, the court had directed the registrar of the Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) to submit the papers of Evaly.

The court also put a moratorium on the sale or transfer of all movable and immovable properties of Evaly.

Later, the judge had said that the court would form a four-member board – with a former judge, a chartered accountant, a secretary and a lawyer – to assess the liabilities of Evaly.

On 13 October, the commerce ministry proposed the names of three former secretaries for the board.

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

The company took money in 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 even after the promised delivery deadline.

In some cases, 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.