Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have detained 14 members of a gang from Dhaka, Comilla and Brahmanbaria for embezzling money from overseas travellers after assuring them of providing fake Covid-19 negative certificates.
The detainees are Md Jashim Uddin, 22, Md Sultan Mia, 19, Md Belal Hossain, 31, Md Abul Hossain, 24, Md Abdul Nur, 21, Md Alfaz Mia, 19, Md Shamim, 32, Md Ahmmad Hossain,19, Md Imran Uddin Milon, 19, Md Sabuj Mia, 27, Md Abdur Rashid, 28, Md Abdul Karim Chowdhury, 32, Md Angur Mia, 25, and Md Alamgir Hossain, 20.
According to a media release of RAB headquarters, several teams of RAB-11 conducted a drive in Kotwali area of Comilla on Wednesday night and detained Jashim and Sultan.
Based on the arrestees’ information, RAB members conducted drives in Nasirnagar of Brahmanbaria, and Sayedabad, Ramna and Motijheel areas of the capital and detained the other members of the gang.
During the drive, around Tk7 lakh, 120 SIM cards, a fingerprint machine for activating SIM cards, a tab, 32 mobile phones, a passport and some notebooks were seized.
During primary interrogation, ringleader Belal confessed that he assured a man who wanted to go to a Middle East country that he would provide a fake Covid-19 negative certificate in exchange for Tk10,000 in March last year.
In this way, Belal took about Tk50 lakh from more than 600 international travellers.
Process is underway to take legal action against the detainees, RAB added.