Police have arrested a 33-year-old woman in Chattogram for allegedly duping poor people on the pretext of providing loans.
The arrestee has been identified as Jannatun Naima.
On Monday evening, the victims, mostly low-income earners and beggars, gheraoed Naima’s office in the Hamzarbagh area and demanded that she returned their money.
Cops were soon alerted and a team from the Panchlaish police station rushed to her rescue, only to place her under arrest subsequently.
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According to police, Jannatun runs an NGO -- ‘Save As Your Earn’ -- but she has not taken the mandatory licence from the government.
Officer-in-charge of Panchlaish police station Zahidul Kabir said, "Naima who started the NGO last year took money from domestic helps and other economically poor people in the name of arranging a loan of Tk 4,000 each from the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief."
"The NGO collected Tk 200 each from around 14,000 low-income earners over the past two years," he added.
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To gain people’s trust, the accused showed them a draft of the loan documents, forging the signature of a deputy secretary of the department of Disaster Management, the OC said.
Whenever people would enquire about the loans, she would tell them that they will get a phone call directly from the ministry, said OC Zahidul.