BCL man among two held in Ctg for swindling woman of Tk 2 lakh in name of a deputy minister

Police last night arrested two people, including an activist of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, on charge of taking Tk two lakh from a woman using the name of Deputy Education Minister Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel.

They took the money by promising the woman of ensuring the bail of her husband who was arrested in a drug case last year.

The two arrestees are Shihab Uddin Siddiqui alias Rihan Sihab, 26, of Chattogram's Fatikchhari upazila and Solaiman, 41, of Cumilla's Muradnagar area, said police.

Among them, Shihab is a BCL man while Solaiman is Marketing and Sales Manager at Golden Inn Hotel of port city, our Chattogram correspondent reports, quoting police.

They were arrested hours after Taslima, a senior officer of Southeast Bank, filed a case accusing the duo with Kotwali police yesterday.

Kotwali police station's Sub-Inspector Mominul Haque said Rab arrested Taslima's husband Iftiaz Saeed Sardar from Kamalapur area of Dhaka on November 18 in possession of drugs.

He is now in jail. Iftiaz, Sihab and Solaiman are friends.

"Taslima communicated with Shihab at Hotel Golden Inn where he introduced himself as a person close to Deputy Education Minister Nowfel. He told the woman that he could release Iftiaz on bail after talking to the minister if she gives him Tk two lakh in cash," said the police official.

"Later, the woman gave the money to Shihab and his friend Solaiman to release her husband. But she became suspicious as the bail was not granted in court later," said the police official said.

SI Momin said Taslima later went to Nowfel's Assistant Personal Secretary Rahul and disclosed the matter and Rahul told the minister about the fraudsters.

Mohammad Mohsin, officer-in-charge (OC) of Kotwali Police Station said police recovered Tk 170,000 from the accused after their arrest.