Police arrest two EC employees over NID scam

Police have arrested two employees of the Election Commission's offices in Chattogram in connection with the distribution of counterfeit NIDs to Rohingya refugees.

The arrestees are Abul Khair Bhuiyan, 45, a staffer at the EC's Chattogram district office, and Anwar Hossain, 45, a staffer at the EC's Mirsarai Upazila office.

They were arrested from their workplaces on Tuesday, said Counter-terrorism and Transnational Unit Inspector Rajesh Barua, reports bdnews24.com.

Law enforcers arrested the two in a case over the NID scam with the Kotwali police and sought 10 days to grill them in custody on Tuesday, said Rajesh.

Police have arrested 10 people in connection with the forgery so far. The eight other suspects have already been taken into custody for questioning.

The EC launched its hunt for the scammers after a Rohingya woman was arrested while trying to collect a Bangladeshi passport using a forged NID. The National Identity Registration Department halted the distribution of 50 NIDs to suspected members of the Rohingya community.

The EC had sold off a few unserviceable computers in 2007-2008 before five laptops went missing from its offices, according to officials. The forgery ring got hold of at least two of those laptops, believe the investigators.

Police arrested Joynal Abedin, office assistant in Chattogram Regional Election Commission Office last week on charges of including Rohingya refugees in the electoral roll of Cox’s Bazar. One of the missing laptops was also recovered from Joynal.

Following the tip-off from Joynal, on Thursday police arrested Mostafa Farook, another temporary employee of the EC, who worked as a technical support staff for updating the voter list at the Boalkhali Upazila Election Commission Office. The second laptop was found in his possession.