The anti-crime elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested 14 members of a gang from different parts of the country in connection with embezzling money from overseas travelers in the name of providing Covid-19 negative certificates.
The arrested were identified as 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, Md Alamgir Hossain, 20, Md Jashim Uddin, 22, Md Sultan Mia, 19, Md Belal Hossain, 31 and Md Abul Hossain, 24.
They were arrested from various areas in the capital Dhaka, Cumilla and Brahmanbaria.
According to a press release of RAB Headquarters, several teams of RAB-11 conducted a special drive in Kotwali area of Cumilla on Wednesday night and nabbed Jashim and Sultan.
Getting information obtained from them, RAB members conducted drives in Nasirnagar of Brahmanbaria, and Sayedabad, Ramna and Motijheel areas of the capital Dhaka and arrested the other members of the gang.
During the drive, RAB personnel also seized around Tk7 lakh, 120 SIM cards, a fingerprint machine for activating SIM cards, a tab, 32 mobile phones, a passport and some notebooks from their possessions .
During primary grilling in RAB custody, ringleader Belal admitted 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 travelers.
Cases will be filed against the arrested criminals, said RAB.
