'Cyber fraud, gambling, laundering': 6 Chinese nationals, 2 others placed on 2-day remand
The accused are MA JIE, 33, Zhang Jiahao, 22, Liu Jinjie, 32, Wang Shibo, 24, Chang Tiantian, 29, and James Zhu, 43, Md. Kawsar Hossain, 24, Md. Abdul Karim, 28.
A Dhaka court has placed six Chinese nationals and two others on a two-day remand over allegations of online gambling, cyber fraud and laundering crores of taka to China.
The accused are MA JIE, 33, Zhang Jiahao, 22, Liu Jinjie, 32, Wang Shibo, 24, Chang Tiantian, 29, and James Zhu, 43, Md. Kawsar Hossain, 24, Md. Abdul Karim, 28.
The court also allowed jail gate interrogation of another accused, Rokon Uddin, 40.
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Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Islam Junaid passed the order today (14 May) following a police petition, Assistant Sub-Inspector Rezaul Karim of the police prosecution division confirmed.
Earlier in the day, the investigation officer the case, Sub-Inspector Md Rashedul Islam, produced the accused before the court and sought a five-day remand for each.
Lawyers representing the accused sought cancellation of the remand and prayed for bail, while the state opposed the plea.
After the hearing, the court granted a two-day remand for eight accused and allowed jail gate interrogation of Rokon.
Yesterday (13 May), the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested the accused during drives conducted in the Uttara and Turag areas.
During the raid, police recovered three 64-port GSM/GPRS SIM module (VoIP GSM gateway) machines, one eight-port GSM/GPRS SIM module machine, one 256-port GSM/GPRS SIM module machine, around 280 SIM cards of different operators, multiple laptops, 20 smartphones of different brands, around Tk605,000 in cash, passports and NIDs of foreign nationals, and a Toyota microbus.
As part of the drive, the cyber team conducted operations in Uttara and arrested nine people, including six Chinese nationals, over allegations of online gambling, cyber fraud and illegal digital financial transactions.
Investigators identified advertisements for online gambling, deposit bonus offers and illegal transactions through bKash and Nagad on Facebook, YouTube, Telegram groups and fake websites linked to the accused.
According to police, the websites were used to trap ordinary people by promising double or triple returns within a short period.
Based on the information, Kawser, Karim and Rokon were arrested from Sector 13 under Uttara West Police Station and the Chinese nationals from the Rupayan Housing Estate area under Turag Police Station.
DB Police Cyber Team Sub-Inspector Subrata Das later filed a case with Ramna Model Police Station over the incident.
Police said a crackdown on online gambling began on 1 May.
