The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested an alleged fraud on charge of embezzling a huge amount of money by claiming to be a close relative of the prime minister's family from the city's Bashundhara residential area on Tuesday night.
The elite force also recovered one foreign-made firearm, ammunition, one car used for fraudulent activities and videos and edited pictures from his possessions.
The man has been identified as Abu Hanif Tushar alias Hanif Mia, 39. He is a resident of Kasba in Brahmanbaria.
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Recently, Hanif demanded Tk 200 crore from a political leader of Awami League for managing nomination in the upcoming parliamentary elections. After that the AL leader complained to Rab. After investigation, the intelligence wing of the Rab headquarters and members of Rab-1 jointly conducted a drive in Bashundhara residential area and arrested Hanif.
Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of law and media wing of the Rab headquarters, disclosed the information in a press conference at Karwan Bazar Media Centre in the capital on Wednesday afternoon.
During the preliminary interrogation, Hanif said that he was involved in illegal activities, Al Moin said.
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The Rab's media wing director also said that Hanif started working as a personal assistant of a political leader in Brahmanbaria in 2015, but he did not take any salary in return. He used to meet dignitaries attending seminars and take pictures with them. Later, he used to upload these pictures in Facebook.
Hanif used to take pictures not only in the country, but also in India with the dignitaries.
He used to tell people that he had good relations with the prime minister's close relatives and the Bangabandhu family, the Rab official said.
He also said that Hanif used to target various political figures. He used to demand 200 crore taka promising nomination as MP candidates. He has recently spoken to 10 to 12 such people.
Rab got such information from Hanif's mobile message. However, Hanif claimed that he did not take money from anyone.
The Rab spokesman said that Hanif had initially admitted to them that he made more than 5 crore rupees so far through fraudulent activities.
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He used that money in the transport sector to run buses on streets. He also has expensive cars, houses and 20 bighas of land. The value of his property is huge, the official said.
Hanif also cheated on government officials by enticing them to get promotion.