Once deceived, he starts a racket
Rab arrested 14 members of a gang that used to cheat outbound passengers in the name of providing them with negative Covid-19 reports needed for going abroad.
This way, the gang conned them of several crores of taka.
They were held from Dhaka and other districts on Wednesday night after many victims complained to different hospital authorities, Khandaker Al Moin, Rab's legal and media wing director, told a press conference yesterday.
The arrestees are Belal Hossain, Sobuj Mia, Jasim Uddin, Sultan Mia, Abul Hossain, Abdul Nur, Afzal Mia, Shamim, Ahmed Hossain, Emran Uddin, Abdur Rashid, Abdul Karim Chowdhury, Angur Mia and Alamgir Hossain.
Moin said Belal, who was in Oman, formed the gang after he was deceived by a fraudster in March last year.
He told Rab that he underwent Covid-19 tests, a prerequisite for going abroad at that time, at a Cumilla hospital before leaving for Oman.
A man who said he was a doctor at the hospital told Belalthat his test result came positive but promised to make it negative in exchange for Tk 10,000.
Belal gave the money thinking he would fail to board the flight on time otherwise.
He could realise that he was cheated when the hospital authorities confirmed that he tested positive.
A month later, he underwent a second Covid-19 test when the result came negative and he left for Oman.
But before that he had shared his experience with his close friend Sobuj and pursued him to run a racket using similar tactics, the Rab official said.
Belal returned home four months later and engaged another friend Jasim in the racket.
Rab officials said in the last 10 monthsSobuj, once an auto-rickshaw driver, took Tk 10,000-15,000 from around 1,000 expatriates each and embezzled over Tk 1 crore, promising to provide them negative Covid-19 reports from designated hospitals.
Besides, Belal amassed Tk 50 lakh from around 600 Bangladeshi expatriates while the remaining gang members each used to get Tk 25,000-30,000 a month.
The Rab official said some of the gang members went to different districts and visitedhospitals designated for Covid-19 tests for outbound passengers, and collected phone numbers of expatriates.
Belal and Sobuj would call their numbers and tell them that their results came positive.
They then took money from them, promising to change the reports into negative ones, Rab official Moin said.
After getting money, they used to switch off their phone numbers. The hospital authorities used to send actual reports to the victims' numbers.
Rab said no hospital staffers are found to be involved with the racket.
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