DMP arrests six for extorting money through threats over phone calls

Police have arrested six members of an alleged extortion ring from different areas of Dhaka on charges of extorting money from people by giving threats over phone calls.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Cyber Crime Investigation Division nabbed the suspects during raids in Jatrabari, Motijheel, Turag and Paltan area on Thursday.

The arrestees were identified as Belal Khan, Rakib Khan Titul, A Hannan, Delowar Hossain, ‘Sohag’ and Md Khorshed Alam, reports bdnews24.com.

The law enforcers recovered mobile phones and SIM cards which were used to extort people along with some documents during the raids, Deputy Police Commissioner Walid Hossain said at a media briefing on Saturday.

One of the victims alleged that a person identified himself Malibagh’s Jisan Mahmud, a member of Dhaka's top criminal gang 'Seven Star Group'.

 “They said that several members of their organisation are currently behind bars. A huge amount of money is being poured into their bail appeal and the running of the organisation's operations,” Walid said.

 “So they are taking financial help from various established businessmen and jobholders. They demanded Tk 500,000 from the plaintiff and threatened to kidnap and murder his family members if he failed to pay up. The plaintiff ignored them but the extortionists continued to make threats of kidnapping and murder from different mobile phone numbers, forcing him to deposit Tk 35,000 into different mobile banking accounts provided by the accused.”

However, the threats did not stop there as the gang members kept on demanding more money from the victim.

During an initial interrogation, the arrestees revealed that they had been threatening businessmen and jobholders over the phone by claiming to be members of criminal gangs.

They collected the phone numbers of their victims from the annual publications of traders’ associations in the capital for a long time.

A case is being filed over the matter with Jatrabari police.