Detective Branch (DB) of police have arrested four members of an organised gang who drew loans as much as Tk 30 crore from different banks using the forged national identity cards (NID).
The arrested are Zainal Abedin alias Idris, 42, Election Commission employee Pallab Das, 36, Rafiqul Islam Khan, 38 and Alif Hossain, 20.
They were arrested from Mirpur area on Friday (April 5).
The DB said Zainal Abedin alias Idris, who is the mastermind of the organised gang. had planned to draw more Tk 50 crore from different banks using fake deeds and NIDs. Then they planned to leave the country with their families.
Among the arrested persons, Pallab Das works as the outsourcing data entry operator at NID server in Rangpur. Taking advantage of it, he used to make NID cards with seperate numbers keeping the names and addresses right entering the server. Then he used to supply those forged NID cards to Idris. Using those NID cards, Idris secured loans from different banks.
DB chief Harun-ar-Rashid stated it at a press conference at his office at Minto Road in the capital on Saturday (April 6).
He said once the fraud Zainal had almost nothing. He used to sell imitation jewelries. He got involved in fraudulent activities incurring losses in business. In order to continue his fraudulent activities, Zainal also opened a company. Besides, he prepared documents to open six more companies. Using those documents, he used to secure loans through the dishonest officials of different banks.
The DB chief also said there are 10 NID cards in the name of Zainal. Using those NIDs, he used to apply for loans to different banks. Keeping the names and addresses of NIDs intact, he changed the numbers of those NIDs. He used to provide photos with beard, or with mustache, or without beard and mustache on those photos before applying for loans.
Harun-ar-Rashid said Zainal used to apply for bank loans showing the same land, same flat and same office. He took loans from some banks, while loans from other banks were under process. Zainal drew loans from different banks using the same name submitting fake NIDs and deeds. "We have also arrested Election Commission employee Pallab Das who made fake NIDs for Zainal," the DB chief said.
He also said Zainal had opened an office named 'ER International' at DOHS. He applied for loans to different banks showing this single office on seven different names and using the same address. Zainal has taken Tk 30 crore loans from different banks so far, but has not repaid the loans. Spending the money, he has built a seven-storeyed house at Vatara, eight to nine flats at Uttara and Ashkona area, and built another house at his village home in Madaripur.
Regarding the arrested Pallab Das, the DB chief said Pallab Das works as the outsourcing data entry operator at NID server in Rangpur. Taking advantage of it, he used to enter the Election Commission server whenever he liked and make fake NID cards for Zainal. Pallab used to take Tk 2 to Tk 3 lakh from Zainal for making fake NID cards. However, the DB would investigate how much money Pallab has taken from Zainal.
Harun said the DB would produce the arrested persons to the court and seek to place them on remand for interrogation. "We will try to know how many people have received fake NID cards from Pallab Das. We will also try to know whether there is any other persons of the Election Commission is associated with Pallab Das," he said.
