E-orange COO arrested

Police have arrested Amanullah, chief operating officer of controversial e-commerce platform E-orange, in a case filed against him and four others for embezzling Tk 1,100 crore.

He was arrested from the capital’s Gulshan area on Wednesday night, Gulshan police station Inspector (investigation) Aminul Islam confirmed The Business Post.

On Monday, Md Taherul Islam, on behalf of aggrieved customers of E-orange, filed the case against five officials of E-orange with Gulshan police station.

The accused are Sonia Mehzabin, Masukur Rahman, Amanullah, Bithi Akhter and Kawsar.

Later on Tuesday, a Dhaka court sent E-orange’s former owner Sonia Mehjabin and her husband Masukur Rahman to jail in the same case.

Earlier, several private commercial banks banned transactions with several e-commerce platforms, including E-Orange.

According to an official at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), apart from the fraud case filed against E-orange owners and officials, investigators are also looking into allegations of money laundering by the company.

“If necessary, everyone in the organization will be questioned and CID will file a case if evidence of money laundering is found,” the CID official said.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, e-orange announced on its Facebook page that its deliveries will be delayed further citing attacks, harassment, and lawsuits obstructing its daily official activities,.

In the Facebook post, e-orange said, “Some customers are spreading rumours through social media and filed lawsuits against the board and officials of the organisation. Many officials have already resigned while many others are now feeling insecure. Therefore, officials are not being able to work at the office and delivery persons cannot reach the warehouses.”

“We have received lots of emails for refunds in the last few days. We are doing our best to ensure that refunds are disbursed quickly via SSL,” the post stated.

Meanwhile, the commerce ministry has served a show-cause notice to the online platform over allegations of harassment of customers.

The ministry said that it had learned from several customers and the media that E-orange did not deliver products on time even after receiving payment from its customers, violating the Customer Rights Protection Act.

The ministry asked e-orange authorities to explain, in seven days, as to why legal actions should not be taken against the platform.