Editor’s note, October 2026 — This 2021 report records what Evaly’s managing director said at the time. He was subsequently convicted in several separate fraud cases and is recorded as absconding. The court record is summarised below the original article.
Mohammad Rassel, CEO and managing director of controversial e-commerce platform Evaly, did not admit guilt during a three-day remand in a fraud case filed over embezzlement of customers' money.
On Monday – the last day of the three-day grilling, the Evaly CEO boastfully told the police that he would survive the legal battle and no crime could be proved against him, police officials who are supervising the investigation told Tech BD.
They quoted Rassel as saying, "I haven't done anything wrong. Yes, the wrong I did was that I offered high discounts on products. But, it is not that no one has received their products. In fact, many people have received their products.
"Now everyone is asking what I have done with so much money. Apart from selling products at discounted prices, money has been spent on advertising as well. Still, I would request law enforcers – if you can, find out if I have smuggled money abroad."
Rassel also told the investigators that Evaly's liabilities to customers was Tk700 crore and that to merchants was Tk250 crore.
The investigating officials, however, said Rassel was not responding much to questions relating to misappropriation or laundering of money received in advances from customers. The police are also seeking information about the assets of Rassel, his wife Shamima Nasrin and other family members at home and abroad.
On completion of the three-day remand, Gulshan police is going to produce Mohammad Rassel and his wife in the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court today.
Md Asaduzzaman, deputy commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), sat at a special meeting with the Gulshan Division of the DMP on Monday afternoon to decide whether Rassel needs to be questioned further.
Asked whether they would make a prayer for another remand of Rassel on Tuesday, Asaduzzaman told TBS on Monday night that they would pray for a fresh remand but he refused to mention the period of the remand they were going to appeal for.
During the interrogation, Rassel also claimed his wife and Evaly Chairman Shamima Nasrin to be innocent.
He told the investigating officer of the case that thousands of customers are now staging demonstrations demanding his release and that he will be freed from the detention for "all these ordinary customers".
Aminul Islam, inspector (investigation) at Gulshan police station, told TBS that during interrogation of Rassel, they emphasised the issue of the embezzlement of money. They also tried to know whether the money has been transferred anywhere in the country or abroad.
"Even though money laundering is not related to the case filed with Gulshan police station, we enquired him on this issue. We will exchange information with the CID if we find any signs or evidence of money laundering, as the CID is already looking into the matter," Aminul Islam said.
"Apart from this, we have received a list of customers who have made advance payments and merchants who have sold products. However, we do not want to reveal the number at the moment. We have collected all the information from Evaly's server. We will also inform the court about these issues," he added.
Meanwhile, Wahidul Islam, a sub-inspector at Gulshan police station and the investigating officer of the case, fallen into a trouble of a different sort.
"Customers from all over the country are calling on my phone and giving their invoice numbers so that I can ask the Evaly CEO to deliver their products quickly."
"I don't know how many people have got my phone number. Many police colleagues are also calling me to find out ways to get their products quickly," said Wahidul Islam.
Mohammad Rassel and his wife Shamima Nasrin were shown arrested by Dhanmondi thana police on Friday night in a case of embezzlement filed by a merchant.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Ihsanul Ferdous, additional deputy commissioner of police in Dhanmondi zone of the DMP, said the Dhanmondi police would apply to the court seeking a remand of the duo, if the Gulshan police do not make pray for a fresh remand of them.
"These are the two main accused in the case. Apart from them, many officials of Evaly have been accused. We will decide on whether the rest of the accused will be grilled will be decided only after grilling Rassel and his wife bringing them into our custody," he said.
What the courts decided
Mohammad Rassel and Evaly chairperson Shamima Nasrin were convicted in a series of separate cases:
- Five years rigorous imprisonment each in a fraud case, with a Tk10,000 fine and three further months in default.
- Three years each in another fraud case, with a Tk5,000 fine and six further months in default.
- Two years each in a further fraud case.
- One year each from a Chattogram court for cheque fraud, with a fine of Tk1,80,000.
Both are recorded as absconding, and the courts have issued conviction and arrest warrants.
The cases rested on ordinary consumer complaints rather than anything exotic. One centred on a customer who ordered a Yamaha R15 motorcycle in February 2021, paid in full, and did not receive it within the promised 45 days.
What the accounts showed
The claim that nothing had gone wrong is testable against the central bank's inspection, which found Evaly's liabilities to customers and merchants at Tk403.80 crore against current assets of Tk65.17 crore — a gap of roughly six to one.
That ratio is the whole story: the business could not have been rescued by better management or more time. Advance payments were funding deliveries already owed, so the arithmetic only worked while deposits grew faster than obligations. Once they stopped, the shortfall was fixed and visible.
Two things the defence blurred need separating: whether the operators intended to defraud customers, which is a question for a court, and whether the model could ever have settled its debts, which is a question of accounting. The second had an answer before the first was argued.
