Police arrested four members of an organised gang involved with deception through ‘magnetic coins’ from several areas under Adabor police station of Dhaka from late Thursday to early Friday.

The arrestees are Ifthekhar Ahmed, 44, Abu Naim Md. Faizanul Haque alias Dr. Naim, 48, Md. Abdul Halim Talukder Quraishi, 42, and Abul Kalam Azad, 46.

A team of Adabor police station conducted drives in several areas, including Prince Bazar, Shekhertek, Suchana Community Center, and Krishi Market between 12:10am and 7am on Friday, said Md Talebur Rahman, deputy commissioner (DC-media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), in a media release.

During the drives, four antique metal coins, a bank cheque worth Tk 50 lakh, Tk 19.5 lakh in cash, 10 mobile phones were seized from the accused, it said.

According to information gleaned from the accused, the fraud began eight months back when a woman introduced her landlord Mizanur Rahman to arrestee Ifthekhar Ahmed at his Banani office.

Ifthekhar convinced Mizanur to invest in an ‘antique metal coin’ business, claiming he had extensive experience in the field and assured him that there was high demand for these coins in Japan and the US, promising massive returns on investment.

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On September 18, 2024, Ifthekhar, along with Abu Naim and Abdul Halim met Mizanur at a hotel in Gulshan and informed that each antique coin was worth around $20 billion in the international market.

To further deceive him, they brought in a fake chemist named Abdul Halim Talukder Quraishi who allegedly conducted a scientific test on the coins and issued a fabricated authenticity report, according to the release.

Believing the scam, the victim handed over Tk 45 lakh to the accused in cash in advance on October 27 last at a building near Japan Garden City in Adabor. Over time, he was forced to pay an additional Tk 75 lakh in cash and issue a Tk 50 lakh cheque from Islami Bank Bangladesh for the purchase.

While verifying the authenticity of the coins, Mizanur realised he had been a victim of deception and later filed a case with Adabor police station.

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Following this, police found that the accused were part of an inter-district fraud gang that had deceived multiple victims across the country using similar schemes.

During primary interrogation, the arrestees admitted they were targeting more victims with the same scam and several cases had been filed against them earlier.

Legal action against the arrestees was underway and efforts were on to arrest the rest accused, the release continued.