Two youths were arrested by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on Thursday for allegedly impersonating the chairman and a commissioner of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and extorting around Tk 8 lakh from some 16 people over phone.
The arrestees, Ziaur Rahman, 28, and Mohammad Israfil, 27, were produced at a press briefing at the ACC office in the capital yesterday.
A team of Rab-10 arrested Ziaur from the capital's Jurain and, as per information retrieved from him, Israfil from Rampura.
Ziaur said they targeted government officials and private executives against whom corruption allegations were circulating in the media.
Claiming to be ACC Chairman Ghulam Rahman or Commissioner Shahabuddin, they extorted these people, promising that charges would not be pressed against them, he said.
Ziaur, a resident of Madaripur, said they opened a bank account in Dutch Bangla Bank's Shantinagar branch in 2011 using Ghulam's name and asked the victims to deposit the money there.