CID: Sadia defrauded over hundred suitors in 10 years

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police has said Sadia Jannat alias Jannatul Ferdous had been deceiving people for the last 10 years in the name of marriage and swindled crores of taka from them.

The con artist, 38, had even taken more than Tk40 lakh in a day from the bride-seekers, CID officials said, reports Bangla Tribune.

During the interrogation under CID custody, Sadia disclosed various tricks she and her fraud gang resorted to, in order to fool the people who usually approached her after being lured by the marriage proposals advertised in newspapers.

She used to put adverts in the dailies seeking unmarried, widower, divorced, or elderly men and presented herself before them as per the situation. 

Her particular target was wealthy suitors who were allured to be settled abroad, the CID said.

On September 17, members of CID arrested Sadia at Rampura in Dhaka and took her under their custody for two days' remand the next day. 

The gang's four other members, including her second husband Enamul Hasan Jisad, remained absconding since her arrest.

Three other members are - Shahriar, Farzana, and Abu Sufian.

On Saturday, CID officials said they have already found Sadia's involvement in cheating by giving advertisements -- suitors wanted -- in newspapers.

The law enforcement agency collected information from her seized mobile phones, SIM cards, and diary in which she used to write down the names of victims and the amount of money she took from them.

CID already started contacting the victims for more information about Sadia's cheating, they said.

An official involved in the investigation said Sadia is very cunning and she misled the agency by giving false information on the whereabouts of her husband and for that reason, they could not arrest him during a raid.

'Took cash from victims'

Another CID official said they are trying to identify Sadia's bank accounts with the help of her national identity card to gather detailed information on her fraud. 

"Later on, all the information of her financial transactions will be collected through Bangladesh Bank by sending it a letter," he said.

Then the actual amount she swindled from the victims will be known, he continued. 

The official said Sadia opened fixed deposit receipts (FDR) worth around Tk40 lakh in four banks on the very day she was arrested.

She always took cash from the targeted victims, he added. 

"We are now verifying the land deeds recovered from her house. Besides, we are trying to contact the victims whose passports were recovered from her possession."

CID officials said trickster Sadia used to use one SIM card for a particular victim and never used it for another person.

After the fraud was over with a targeted suitor, she would discard the SIM card and sometimes throw away the mobile phone set as well.

Second marriage for cheating purpose

A resident of Debidwar upazila in Comilla, Sadia, married Enamul Hasan, of Muladi in Barisal, for the purpose of cheating people.

It was her second marriage.

During interrogation, Sadia said they met on Facebook before marriage and discussed the tricks to defraud people.

CID's Organized Crime Unit official Zisan Ahmed said hundreds of people have been cheated by Sadia and her gang. Many of them have started contacting the officials involved in the investigation.

Special Superintendent of Police (SP) of CID Shamsunnahar (Dhaka Metro-West) said they are conducting drives to arrest other members of Sadia's gang.