<i>Cheating in the name of jinn</i>
In the dead of night, around 2:15 am on January 6, a male voice called the cellphone of polytechnic student Rubi Akhter Rifa. The man identified himself as a jinn -- a supernatural spirit Mulims believe in -- and ordered her to establish an orphanage and a mosque in her parents' names.
Rifa, fourth year student of Institute of Information Technology of Bogra (IITB) in Bogra town, objected. She was only a student. But the mysterious voice assured her that Allah had reserved for her a treasure of Tk 50,000 crore. The catch: She had to make offerings, starting with three goats, 101 kg of aromatic rice and spices. Or she could just give him Tk 11,151, the value of the gifts.
So began what the student described as a four-month ordeal that included blackmail, repeated late-night cellphone calls and mental distress that ended when Rapid Action Battalion officers finally arrested two men for fraud.
Police say these kind of jinn-related scams are becoming more common across the country, including Dhaka. And yesterday about one hundred purported victims of jinn impersonators formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club demanding a stronger crackdown on such frauds.
They also handed over a memorandum on the problem to Home Minister Sahara Khatun, asking her to take additional steps.
All the demonstrators were from Gobindaganj, where the scams have proliferated and victims say local law enforcement are not taking the problem seriously. One of the demonstrators, Md Milon, said the fake jinn are bringing a bad reputation for them nationally and they feel insecure when they go outside their town.
Officer-in-charge (OC) Fazlul Karim of Gobindaganj police station in Gaibandha said more than 150 gangs based in the area impersonate jinn, and call people over cellphones across the country. Each gang consists of around seven to ten gang members.
He added that over the last four months, police have arrested 29 alleged jinn and have filed 13 criminal cases. That is after filing 17 cases between May and December 2009.
Rapid Action Battalion intelligence unit arrested two purported jinn from Uttara of the capital yesterday.
The arrestees are Helal Uddin Talukdar, 35, and Delwar Hossain, 45, both residents of Gulshan-1, and originally from Sirajganj.
Director of Rab Media and Legal Wing Commander M Sohail said they raided a house in Uttara on a tip-off, and arrested the two.
The two arrestees used to promise people increased earnings with the help of their supernatural spirits, in exchange for fees. They were also getting clients, said Sohail.
Rab set up hidden video cameras to record the suspects' dealings with clients before arresting them, Sohail added.
In Rifa's case, the voice on the cellphone also began calling her father, warning he would die if his daughter did not give offerings to the shrine of Paglababa in Bogra.
Rifa eventually agreed to give the Tk 11,151. The voice told her that a jinn in human form would meet her on a bypass road in Bogra town, exchange "salam" with her and then take the money. She was strictly forbidden to look back at the jinn after handing over the money, or else it would bring great harm to her and her family.
She did as told. "I walked down and came across a youth wearing a lungi and a jacket who exchanged a salam and received the offertory," the student recalled. "He also handed over a small idol of gold which later proved made of lead."
"With night fall I had been eagerly waiting for further instruction over cellphone and at the dead of night the call came again, which asked me to bury the idol under my parents' bed" she said, adding she did that, too.
She said after few days into receiving the idol, the voice informed her she was to receive other treasures from Allah, but that would cost her Tk 1,90,000 in cash and around Tk 15,000 for a cellphone recharge. If she did not follow through this time, her family would face dire consequences.
Rifa claimed her father sold some ancestral farmland and also borrowed money at a high interest rate to make the next payment. The student then said she met the man in the lungi several times in different places to pay off the full amount.
At this point, the men involved in the scheme apparently began fighting over the money. One of them called up Rifa and confessed she was not dealing with real jinn. She informed Rab, and the battalion laid in wait when Rifa arranged to meet two jinn to hand over some of her mother's gold ornaments.
Rab arrested the alleged jinn Zafrul, 38, and Sarwar, 25, both of Gabindaganj on February 15. They arrested Nurul, a third man involved in the scam, on April 14.
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