ACC employee among four arrested while taking extortion

Four members of a racket, including an employee of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), have been arrested at red-handed while extorting from a businessman at Motijheel in the capital.

Special Operation Team of Detective Branch (DB) Lalbagh Division captured them on Friday, with Tk 1.5 lakh in cash, four mobile sets and some other things.

They are Goutam Bhattacharya, the PA to DG (Money Laundering) of the government anti-graft body, Asken Ali, a sacked police member, Habibur Rahman and Paritas Mandal.

Harun-Or-Rashid, additional commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), revealed this to reporters at the DMP media centre on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court granted three-day to each to grill at the DB custody.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Humayun Kabir passed the order after Ruhul Amin, investigation officer (IO) of the case filed against them produced them before the court along with a 10-day remand plea.

Harun, however, said that a man with a notice in an ACC monogrammed envelope went to businessman Ashikuzzaman’s house at Uttara on June 20. 

The notice read that the businessman of Baitul Mokarram area was smuggling gold and laundering money in the guise of carpet trade.

Reading it, Ashikuzzaman was feared of. Then, the man, who introduced himself as an ACC officer, told him that the ACC, Bangladesh Bank, CID, DB and NSI were searching for him to hold.

He also asked the businessman to go into hiding by switching off his mobile phone for some days.

The man then asked the businessman to talk to another so-called ACC officer through his phone.

The so-called officer asked the trader to come into a negotiation.

After that, the gang demanded Tk five crore from the businessman and finally came to a consensus for Tk one crore. 

Harun said, “Tk 20 lakh was asked to pay to the gang at a hotel at Motijheel on Friday and the rest money on Sunday. But Ashikuzzaman informed DB Lalbagh of the matter.”

“The members of the DB took position at the hotel from before while the businessman with Tk 20 lakh in four sweetmeat packets entered the hotel. When the four men were taking the money, the cops arrested them red-handed,” he said.

In response to a question if any real officer of the ACC was involved in the crime, the additional commissioner said that they would interrogate them on the matter.