'Masterminds' out on bail

Four suspected “masterminds” of a racket who amassed a hefty amount of money allegedly by leaking question papers of various public exams and government recruitment tests, got bail in a money laundering case recently.

Shawkat Akbar, general recording officer (GRO) of Uttara West Police Station confirmed the matter. Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jasim granted their bail on Wednesday, court sources said.

The four accused are: Janata Bank Senior Officer (suspended) Hafizur Rahman Hafiz, Assistant Administrative Officer of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation Mostafa Kamal, and government job seekers Ibrahim Mollah and Ayub Ali Badhan.

Police tracked down the group following a series of arrests since October 2017, when investigators raided two dormitories of Dhaka University hours before the Gha unit admission test.

In the last one and a half years, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police busted two major rackets with the arrest of 46 members and ringleaders. They were charged in a case with public examination act and ICT act.

Among them, eight people -- who amassed hefty sums of money allegedly by leaking question papers, were charged in a money laundering case filed with Uttara West Police Station on January 7.

Molla Nazrul Islam, special superintendent of CID, said they have found wealth worth crores of taka and the accused could not show any valid source of their income.

The police official said that it was a non-bailable offence and there were no loopholes in the case.

According to the investigators, these organised gangs struck deals with government job and public university admission seekers in exchange for hefty sums, and helped many to cheat their way into universities and government posts in the last four or five years.

The suspects earned about Tk 20 crore. In Hafizur's bank account, officers found “unusual transactions” of Tk 10 crore.

Ibrahim, who is from a poor family, owns a car worth Tk 36 lakh and a four-storey building in Khulna city, a duplex in Narail town and a money exchange business, the investigators said.

In the investigation that took 16 months, CID found that the questions were mainly leaked in two ways: from the printing press on the night before the exams and through digital devices minutes before the exams started.

Alip Kumar Biswas, a suspended assistant director of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan (BKSP), is the suspected mastermind of the gang that used to leak university admission and government recruitment questions through digital devices minutes before the exams.

Several unscrupulous schoolteachers and office assistants used to provide this gang with the question papers minutes before the exams started, CID found in its probe.

Other members then solved the questions at a suitable place and sent the answers to examinees who had made deals with the gang beforehand.

The 46 arrestees include 21 Dhaka University students. Of them, six are members of the gangs and 15 are students who cheated their ways into the university. DU authorities had expelled them later.

The other gang that used to leak questions hours before the exams was led by Natore District Sports Officer Rakibul Hasan.

This gang leaked the questions from a printing press in the capital's Indira Road from where DU's Gha unit admission test papers were printed, according to CID.