Faking his way to nobility
His plan was to grab Nawab Estate's property by falsely identifying himself as a descendant of Nawab Salimullah Khan's family. To get it, he had already filed five cases with land offices of Dhaka and Narayanganj.
To prove his false identity, he managed to create a birth certificate and passport under the name "Nawab Khawja Ali Hasan Askari".
He also obtained a digital national identity (NID) card in 2017, after submitting the false documents.
If that was not enough, he even claimed to be a nephew of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and interestingly, in the passport, he mentioned his permanent address as Ahsan Manzil.
Economic Crime Division of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit claimed to have gleaned the information after interrogating "Hasan", following his arrest on October 28.
Five of his associates were also caught from different areas of the capital.
Hasan is now on a three-day police remand.
The associates were identified as Rashed alias Rahmat Ali alias Raja (34), his brothers Ahmed Ali (38) and Barkat Ali alias Rana (32), Meer Rakib Afsar (20) and Sajib alias Meer Rubel (33).
After Hasan's arrest surfaced, victims are now submitting complaints with CTTC daily, and three different cases have already been filed against him for fraudulence.
"We are receiving surprising information about Hasan and his fraudulent activities. He even contested the recent by-election to Dhaka-10 constituency as a Muslim League candidate under," Towhidul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of CTTC unit, told The Daily Star yesterday.
He said they will now write to Election Commission's NID wing and passport office to find information about Hasan and how he managed to create all these documents using a fake identity.
Police said Hasan used to surround himself with eight to 10 bodyguards hired from a private firm while moving about, to evade law enforcers' suspicion. He always drove around in a rented Pajero SUV.
In his property details report, Hasan identified himself as chairperson of Askari Jute Mills Ltd and Anjuman Askari, an organisation for burial of unidentified bodies.
It was learnt that Askari Jute Mills was a property of Nawab Estate, which was taken over by the government, and later handed over to Sikder Group for management.
He mentioned in the report that he was a university graduate, but in police interrogation, he said he was a student at a madrasa in Lalbagh and did not sit for his Dakhil exam.
Hasan has not only faked his identity but also his wife's.
In the original school certificates, his wife's name was Merina Akter, who passed Secondary School Certificate in 2003 and Higher Secondary Certificate in 2005.
But in 2018, Hasan changed his wife's name to Saheba Hena in the educational certificates. He also altered their marriage certificate that year, showing that he married Saheba with Tk 25 crore mahr.
The documents show that Saheba hails from a small village in Tangail and her father Hatem Ali is a rickshaw-puller. She even participated in the 11th parliamentary election.
ADC Towhidul said they have managed to verify Saheba's identity but are yet to confirm Hasan's.
"We are now trying to arrest Hasan's other associates and collect information about his previous identity. We will also write to the education board to enquire how the full name of a person can be changed based on application," he said.
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