How a conman cheats on the innocent

It was early 2018. Shahidul Islam, a medicine store owner in Rajshahi, could not resist himself from making money in the simplest way he never thought before.

He was offered an unrealistic amount of Tk7 lakh in return within three months for investing only Tk5,500 in buying per one lakh bricks.

What made him become desperate for the investment was many other people around him getting hefty profits this way.

It was all about Shahidul's avarice for money that ended in smoke.

To fulfil his dream of becoming a millionaire overnight, a greedy Shahidul met brickfield owner Md Ibrahim Ali, a clean-shaved and good looking person, to invest in Ibrahim's brickfields.

He, along with his relatives, invested as much as Tk8 crore in three brickfields - Mita Bricks, MSB and BBF - near his residence in Rajshahi's Godagari upazila.

Ibrahim promised him of profit more than 124 times of his original investment or bricks of that value.

Happiness was all around Shahidul and his relatives as they dreamt that they were going to get hulking profits from that business.

On July 12, 2018, Ibrahim gave Shahidul a cheque as per the promise.

But when Shahidul went to the bank to withdraw the money, there was no money in that bank account.

Shahidul quickly called Ibrahim but the number was switched off.

That moment he realised he had been duped, but it was too late.

Like Shahidul, many others in the upazila, also fell victims to Ibrahim's baits of earning in a shortcut way.

After the cheat went into hiding, it came to the fore that Ibrahim had conned more than a hundreds of Godagari residents and eaten up about Tk100 crore.

Shahidul filed a case against Ibrahim with Lalbag Police Station in May this year.

Recently, the case has been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Finally, a CID special team arrested fraud Ibrahim Ali, 42, from Cox's Bazar.

Mohammed Kamruzzaman, special superintendent of police of Dhaka Metro South, who led the CID team, briefed the matter at the CID Headquarters on Wednesday noon.

During the arrest, the CID team found the cheat working in disguise of a day labourer.

Ibrahim was on the run with 109 cases on his back with different police stations and courts in greater Rajshahi.

The number of cases against him now stands at 110 plus Shahidul's one, Godagari police station sources confirmed the CID.

Mohammed Kamruzzaman said, "During a primary interrogation, he confessed to his crimes. He cheated on nearly a hundred of residents of Godagari upazila."

He spent that money to buy trucks, he had several cars for his own too. He bought a factory, some shops, land, garment factories and many other things.

There are three other cohorts in his fraud gang –his father-in-law and two brothers-in-law. They had already been arrested by the Godagari police.

Kamruzzaman said Ibrahim embezzled money from public, offering them higher profits than banks'.

Initially, he provided profits at a high rate so that people get enticed to invest. That was how he made his empire of fraudulence.

Ibrahim will be sent to a court on Thursday to seek his remand.

"We may locate the embezzled money after putting him on remand," Kamruzzaman added.