4 arrested for swindling people with promise of early Covid jab

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested four members of an alleged gang who used to swindle people by promising to provide them with early Covid-19 vaccines before the official schedule.

Acting on a tip-off, a RAB 3 team conducted a raid in Dhaka’s Mugda area on Wednesday night and arrested the accused, RAB Legal and Media Wing Director Commander Khandaker Al Moin said at a press conference on Thursday.

The arrestees are Nurul Haque, 47, Md Saiful Islam, 30, Md Imran Hossain, 23 and Md Dulal Mia, 37. 

RAB also recovered from them  mobile phones used in their fraudulent activities at the time of their arrest.

According to RAB, the fraud ring used to target people aspiring to go abroad. They used to wait in front of various hospitals in the capital and take money from people, promising to expedite their vaccine schedules by sending them information by SMS.

"In the name of sending SMS to provide an earlier vaccination date, this ring has swindled Tk2000-Tk5000 out of each vaccine aspirant," Commander Khandaker Al Moin said.

Saiful and Imran used to find their customers in front of the hospitals and take them to their ring leader Nurul for bargaining. Later, they asked the victims to talk with Dulal, who gave them dates based on the amount of money, the RAB official added.

During primary interrogation, the arrestees told the law enforcers that they were active in Mugda, Shahbag, Ramna, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Mirpur, Mohakhali and some other areas of the capital.

The fraudsters’ ring has deceived more than 200 victims. The arrested men used to promote their work on social media and through SMS.

Al Moin said a case would be filed in this regard.