A mobile court yesterday sentenced 23 people to nine months' imprisonment for cheating people, who seek passports, in front of the Department of Immigration and Passports in Agargaon in the capital.
The convicts, aged between 20 to 40 years, have been identified as Mohammad Majmuch, Atiar Rahman, Rabiul Islam, Mohammad Sohel, Nur Mohammad, Rezaul Karim, Mohammad Manik, Mohammad Suman, Abul Bashar, Mohammad Shafiq, Nuru Miah, Mohammad Lavlu, Joydar Ali, Mohammad Shipon, Enamul Huq, Rafiqul Islam, Kamal Pasha, Jahangir Alam, Harun Khan, Mohammad Hira, Golap Miah, Abdul Aziz and Mohammad Sohag.
Raihan Uddin Khan, senior assistant superintendent of police (ASP) of Rab-2, told The Daily Star that a team of Rab-2 conducted a raid around the passport department and arrested the 23.
“Promising to provide people with passports they have been cheating the passport seekers,” said ASP Raihan.
“In pretence of providing people with passports, the convicts take money from the passport seekers. But the convicts did not provide the victims with passports,” he said adding that when the victims would ask for the passports or their money back, the convicts would threaten them.
The ASP said after members of Rab-2 arrested the 23, Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha delivered the verdict when the detained confessed their crimes before his mobile court.
The mobile court sentenced the detained to six months' imprisonment and fined them Tk 10,000 each but as they failed to pay the fine the court added another three months to each of their sentence.