Tk 400cr transacted through hundi in three months
Says CID after arresting five of a gang
A group of Dubai-based hundi traders created an app, bought 150 "agent SIM cards" of different mobile financial services in Bangladesh, and transacted around Tk 400 crore -- meant to be remitted by Bangladeshi expatriates -- in the last three months.
The Criminal Investigation Department of Police estimated the amount after arresting five people from Dhaka and Chattogram on Wednesday who are allegedly involved with this hundi racket, CID chief Mohammad Ali Mia, additional inspector general of police, told a press conference at the CID Headquarters in Malibagh yesterday.
The money was channelled through hundi, a cross-border money transfer method that bypasses the legal banking system, ultimately hitting the country's foreign currency reserves.
The arrestees are -- Nasim Ahmed, 62, Fazle Rabbi Suman, 32, Kamruzzaman, 33, Zahir Uddin, 37, and Khairul Islam Pias, 34.
The CID seized Tk 28.51 lakh, 18 SIM cards, six modems, and six mobile phones from their possessions.
Hundi traders have been luring Bangladeshi migrants to use illegal methods to send money back home. They do this by using local agents of mobile financial services to pay the migrants' relatives or designated individuals in Bangladesh in exchange for any amount of foreign currency the migrants want to send, according to Criminal Investigation Department.
The CID official said the hundi traders collect foreign currency from expatriate Bangladeshis through their agents.
The racket was transacting money using an app named "Zet Robatic App." To do the transactions, they bought agent sims from Tasmia Associates, an MFS distribution house in Chattogram, he said.