Ex-Director of Data Centre remanded over selling NID info

A Dhaka court on Wednesday placed Tarek M Barkatullah, former director of the Data Center, on a five-day remand in a case filed under the Cyber Security Act with Kafrul Police Station in the capital.

‎Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Abdul Wahab passed the order on Wednesday after the investigating officer filed a petition seeking a 10-day remand for him.

‎Confirming the matter, Additional Public Prosecutor for the state, Shamsuddoha Sumon, said, “The accused held a conspiratorial meeting at Ganabhaban and trafficked NID card information to various institutions and earned an estimated Tk20,000 crore."

‎"Placing him on remand will help recover important information related to the case. After our submission, the court was satisfied and granted a five-day remand,” he added.

‎Earlier on 9 October, the Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested Tarek from the capital's Kafrul area.

According to the remand petition, the accused along with others conspired and decided in a meeting at Ganabhaban to obtain a mirror copy of the National Identity Card database maintained by the Election Commission and the ICT Division.

‎As per the plan, in collusion with the National Computer Council and Wahidur Rahman Sharif, director of Digicon Global Services Ltd, as well as Sajeeb Wazed Joy and others, they created a website using the name of a government agency and began business activities through it.

The case also accuses the defendants of embezzling Tk20,000 crore through these transactions.