Stern action will be taken against e-commerce firms like Evaly and E-orange, said AKM Hafiz Akhter, additional commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
“There are many organisations which are involved in fraudulence like Evaly and E-orange organisations. They are involved in cheating customers through offering prices lower than the market prices. Investigations are on and action will be taken after investigation,” he said while talking at a press briefing at DMP media center on Saturday.
“We want good E-commerce platforms flourish in the country,” said Hafiz.
Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin were arrested after an aggrieved customer Arif Baker lodged a case with Gulshan police station accusing them and few other company executives for 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.
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 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.
On August 16, an aggrieved customer of E-Orange, Md Taherul Islam, filed a fraud case with Gulshan police station in presence of 37 other customers who testified against the accused.
What happened next
Updated September 2026. The DMP briefing came three days after Evaly's chief executive Mohammad Rassel and chairman Shamima Nasrin were arrested at their Mohammadpur home on 16 September 2021. In October the High Court dissolved Evaly's board and put a five-member board headed by former justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik in charge of the company. Shamima Nasrin was released on bail in April 2022 and relaunched Evaly in October that year; Rassel stayed in jail for more than two years, walking out in December 2023 after securing bail in the last of dozens of cheque and fraud cases. E-orange's owner, Sonia Mehjabin, had been arrested in August 2021; her brother, police inspector Sohel Rana, was caught at the Indian border a month later.
The regulatory response outlived the companies. The Digital Commerce Operation Guidelines 2021 made advance payments go into escrow with the payment gateway until delivery, and in 2022 the commerce ministry launched the Digital Business ID and a central complaint cell. The advance-payment, deep-discount model that Evaly, E-orange, Dhamaka and Qcoom ran on has not returned in that form since.
