A Dhaka court has sentenced Evaly Managing Director Mohammad Rassel and Chairperson Shamima Nasrin to five years in prison in a fraud case filed by a customer.

The verdict was delivered on Wednesday by Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Zakir Hossain in the absence of the accused.

According to court sources, each of the convicts has also been fined Tk 10,000, in default of which they will face an additional three months’ imprisonment. As they were absent during the pronouncement, the court also issued arrest warrants against them.

The case was filed by one Sadiqur Rahman, who alleged that the Evaly executives deceived customers with flashy advertisements and false promises.

According to the case statement, Evaly promoted various product offers on its Facebook page, prompting the complainant to order three motorcycles on 20 March 2021. However, the company failed to deliver the products within the stipulated time and later issued two cheques from The City Bank. When the complainant attempted to cash them on 12 April 2022, both were dishonoured.

Following this, Sadiqur Rahman filed a case on 26 November 2023, accusing the Evaly executives of fraud and breach of trust.

Evaly, once a popular e-commerce platform, came under fire in 2021 amid allegations of large-scale financial irregularities and failure to deliver products despite collecting advance payments from thousands of customers.