Home ›› 20 Mar 2022 ›› Front
E-commerce platform E-Orange owner Sheikh Sohel Rana has laundered hundreds of crores of taka aboard and invested in tourism sectors illegally, according to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
After a long inquiry into an allegation from a client in connection with Tk 1,100-crore embezzlement recently, the ACC formed an investigation team to unearth the e-commerce scam headed by its deputy director Monayem Hossain.
Director (Special Enquiry and Investigation-2) Sayed Iqbal Hossain will be supervising the issue.
Suspending police inspector Sohel Rana possesses huge assets in the capital Dhaka, Khagrachari, and in his village Gopalganj, ACC officials have found.
An investigation officer said the ACC received complaint about Sohel Rana’s laundering of Tk 1,100 crore. It found that approximately Tk 500 crore transactions happened through several scheduled banks while the rest of the money might be laundered illegally.
Investigation also found that Sohel invested in Portugal, France, the UK, the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal without the Bangladesh Bank’s permission.
He has a super shop, bar and restaurant in Lisbon of Portugal and a restaurant and a bar in France.
The suspending police inspector also invested Tk 100 crore near the Hilton Hotel in tourism city Pattaya of Thailand. He has a casino and a restaurant in Kathmandu of Nepal.
“We got information about his huge assets both in Bangladesh and overseas. After the conclusion of the probe, it will be revealed and charge sheet will be submitted to the court,” ACC Director Sayed Iqbal Hossain told The Business Post.
As per the inquiry, Sohel Rana was in Gulshan Police Station as a sub-inspector between 2012 and 2015 when he built a good relation with multiple consulate officials.
Taking the advantage of it, he started student migration business.
After the promotion as a police inspector, he joined Banani Police Station as an inspector (investigation) on May 28, 2020. Then he started E-Oranage.com as per the Evaly.com formula.
The E-Oranage.com lured people with double voucher offer. Sohel Rana’s sister Sonia Mahjabin and her husband Masukur Rahman are the co-founders of the company but Sohel Rana is the owner. Several cases have been filed against them.
The ACC says Sohel bought around dozens of flats in Badda’s Suvastu Nazar Valley Complex, Banani, Gulshan, Uttara, Basundhara residential area’s E-block and Purbachal Sector-3.
India’s Border Security Force (BSF) detained Sheikh Sohel Rana on September 4 last year from Cooch Behar border area in India.
The North Bengal Frontier of BSF posted on its Twitter page Sohel’s blurred picture and wrote that an inspector of Dhaka Metropolitan Police was trying to cross the Indian border illegally.Now he is in Indian prison over the violation of border act.
The law enforcement officials of Bangladesh said Sohel planned to flee to Nepal by road and relocate to the European country. Before the arrest on August 17, E-Orange customers filed a case against the owners and staff members of the e-commerce platform for reportedly embezzling around Tk 1,100 crore by not delivering products.
An Azampur resident Md Abu Taher in the capital filed the case on behalf of 37 customers with Gulshan Police Station against the owners and staff of E-Orange, mentioning five names.
