The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has arrested 23 members, including two Ansars, of a racket that allegedly made fake birth certificates, national identity cards (NID) and passports for Rohingyas and notorious criminals in the country.
DB Chief Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid disclosed the matter to reporters at the DMP media centre on Monday.
He added, “Relevant soft documents, delivery slips of hundreds of passports were found in the phones of arrested brokers. Out of which 143 passports were made for Rohingyas in the last three months. The gang members also have confessed to running the racket since 2019.
“They usually charge Tk 5,000 to 12,000 for a birth certificate within six hours. Primarily they admitted that they used to charge Tk 25,000 for a NID within three days, and Tk 1,20,000 for a passport.”
On February 23, several teams of DB’s Lalbagh Division arrested three Rohingya women and men, ten Bangladeshis with passports, and seized computers while conducting raids at Agargaon, Mohammadpur, Jatrabari, and Badda areas of the capital.
Later, based on their information, the DB team carried out drives in different areas of Cox's Bazar, Tangail and Dhaka on February 25. Two Ansar members, and eight middlemen of the Rohingyas, and members of a Bangladeshi brokers syndicate, were arrested during the drives.
Law enforcers also confiscated 17 passports, 13 NIDs, five computers, three printers, 24 mobile phones, and hundreds of documents related to the making of passports.
The DB chief said, “This racket had been operating in three phases. A group of them brought Rohingyas from Cox's Bazar, Bandarban, and Khagrachari to Dhaka. Another group makes birth certificates and NID cards for them.
“Finally, the last group arranges money deposits, biometrics and photos through Ansar members in various regional passport offices including Dhaka.”
He also said, “The racket fraudulently utilised real addresses in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Narayanganj, Mymensingh, Rangpur, Shariatpur, Gopalganj and Barisal districts to create birth certificates and NIDs, and then made passports based on those documents.
“We are conducting a comprehensive investigation into the entire issue. The individuals who were arrested have been placed under a five-day police remand. Efforts are underway to identify other participants in the syndicate.”
