A Dhaka court has granted a two-day remand for eight people, including six Chinese nationals, for questioning in a case filed over alleged laundering of crores of taka to China through online gambling, cyber fraud, and illegal digital financial transactions.
Another accused, Rokon Uddin, was allowed to be questioned at the jail gate.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Islam Junaid passed the order on Thursday after a petition by the investigating officer. DMP prosecution division ASI Rezaul Karim confirmed the matter.
The accused placed on remand are M A G, Zhang Jiahao, Lio Jinzhi, Wang Shibo, Chang Tiantian, James Zhu, Md Kawsar Hossain, and Md Abdul-Karim.
Detective Branch (DB) police arrested them on Wednesday during raids in Uttara and Turag in the capital.
The investigation officer, SI Md Rashedul Islam of DB Cyber Team (South Division), had sought a five-day remand.
Defense lawyers sought bail and requested jail gate interrogation instead of remand.
Rokon Uddin’s lawyer claimed he cannot speak or swallow properly. The court later granted the order.
Additional Commissioner of DB Police Shafiqul Islam said at a press briefing that a nationwide crackdown on online gambling began on May 1, leading to the arrest of nine people, including six Chinese nationals.
He said cyber monitoring detected gambling advertisements on Facebook, YouTube, Telegram, and fake websites offering high returns and facilitating transactions through bKash and Nagad.
Police said raids in Uttara led to the arrest of Kawsar, Karim, and Rokon, while Chinese nationals were detained from Rupayan Housing Estate in Turag.
Recovered items included GSM-GPRS SIM module machines, around 280 SIM cards, laptops, smartphones, Tk 605,000 in cash, passports and NIDs of foreign nationals, and a microbus.
A case was filed with Ramna Model Police Station by SI Subrata Das of DB Cyber Team.
