Victims demand justice against BSB Global's Khairul Bashar
Bashar is expected to be produced before the court later today
Dozens of aggrieved parents and students formed a human chain today (15 July) outside Dhaka's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, demanding justice against Cambrian Education Group Chairman Khairul Bashar Bahar over allegations of large-scale fraud under the guise of overseas education.
The protest comes a day after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested Bashar, also the proprietor of BSB Global Network, from Dhanmondi in connection with a money laundering case.
Carrying placards and chanting slogans, demonstrators accused Bashar and his associates of defrauding thousands of families by promising admission to universities in Canada, the US, the UK, and other European countries in exchange for large sums of money.
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"Over 2,000 students were promised higher education abroad through fake offer letters and fraudulent contracts," said Shahjahan Sarkar, one of the protesting guardians.
"He took more than Tk4,000 crore by defrauding students. Many of us were never refunded despite repeated promises and contracts," he claimed.
Another parent, Tahmina Akhter Munni, alleged that victims were intimidated and physically assaulted by hired goons when they tried to demand their money back.
"On 23 August, when we went to the BSB office, we were brutally beaten," she said.
CID officials earlier revealed that Bashar, along with his wife Khandaker Selima Rawshan and son Arsh Ibn Bashar, operated a sophisticated fraud ring between 2018 and 2024, misappropriating crores of taka from hundreds of students and guardians.
Investigators say 448 confirmed victims have been identified so far, though the actual number may be significantly higher.
The case is being investigated under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, and Bashar is expected to be produced before the court later today.
Multiple arrest warrants are said to have already been issued against him and others involved in the alleged scam.
