Tk30 crore borrowed from banks with false NIDs

The Detective Branch (DB) of police arrested four alleged scammers on Friday for borrowing nearly Tk30 crore from different banks under false names with a view to avoiding repayments and keeping the money permanently.

The accused – Joynal, 42, Election Commission staff Pallab Das, 36, Rafiqul, 38, and Alif, 20 – were arrested from the capital’s Agargaon area.

DB chief Harun-or-Rashid briefed reporters about the scam at his office in the capital Saturday.

Joynal, the ringleader of the group, was planning to borrow Tk50 crore more, and subsequently flee the country with his family. He had no intention of returning the money he already owed, police claim.

With the borrowed money, he has already built a seven-storey building in Dhaka district’s Bhatara union, at least eight more apartments in and around the capital as well as a residence in Madaripur.

Previously, Joynal once ran a business of imitation jewellery and made a simple living. After suffering loss in the business, he took on scams, police officers claim.

Among other members of the fraud group, data entry professional Pallab Das provided outsourcing services to the Election Commission (EC).

Thanks to Pallab’s access to the EC database, he could prepare false NID numbers with the same name and address. Only the images registered with the new unique NID numbers would get minor changes: for example, a change in the shape of the beard or the moustache.

He took Tk2 lakh to Tk3 lakh from Joynal for each unique NID number.

Joynal would use the new numbers to get a new bank loan. He also used names of different organisations having the same office location to procure loans. He opened seven different organisations, and took help from some corrupt bank officials to get business loans

He even prepared false land deeds and mutation records potentially with support from corrupt land office employees.