Home ›› 30 Sep 2021 ›› News
Controversial e-commerce platform Dhamaka Shopping continued its business without any approval from any regulatory authority, had no trade licence and no institutional business account.
The platform carried out its business transactions through the bank account of Invariant Telecom Bangladesh Ltd and so far transacted about Tk 750 crore. Despite transactions of such a huge amount through the account, its latest balance stands at only Tk one lakh.
Dhamaka owes Tk 150 crore to the customers and Tk 180 to 190 crore to merchants, said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director for legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion at a press conference in Dhaka on Wednesday.
The press conference was arranged after the arrest of Dhamaka’s chief operating officer Sirajul Islam Rana, 34, its head of mobile fashion and lifestyle category Imtiaz Hasan Sabuj, 31, and the head of the electronics category Ibrahim Swapan, 33.
RAB conducted raids at Tejgaon and arrested the three after a fraudulence victim filed a case with Tongi West Police against 11 top Dhamaka officials including its chairman and managing director.
The RAB official said payment against refund cheques issued to customers worth Tk 35-40 crore are also pending.
The platform was launched in 2018 under the name ‘Dhamaka Digital’ and later changed its name to ‘Dhamaka Shopping.com’ in 2020.
Commander Moin said the Dhamaka bosses removed a huge amount of money in a very short time before the Bangladesh Bank had frozen 14 of their bank accounts. The issue of opacity is also coming up in the investigations of the Criminal Investigation Department, he said.
Moin said that Dhamaka had no trade license and bank account and the money, deposited by customers went to the account of Invariant Telecom. As Dhamaka bosses had many other businesses, the money was transferred to those businesses,” he said.
“We will know it very soon where the money went or whether the money is in laundering stage or not,” said Moin.
During primary interrogation, the arrestees informed RAB that Dhamaka entered the e-commerce field with a “negative aggressive strategy” since October last year. They have their head office in Mohakhali and a delivery hub at Battala intersection in Tejgaon, Moin said.
The arrestees said Dhamaka had several other concerns — Invariant Telecom Bangladesh Limited, Micro-Trade Food and Beverage Limited, and Micro-Trade ICX Limited — and their main purpose was to extract a huge amount of money from the manufacturers and customers, Moin said.
They intended to hold the money of customers and merchants and divert it to elsewhere under a ‘Hold Money Process Plan’, he added.
Moin said the platform made a large pool of more than three lakh customers by luring them with various lucrative offers, big discounts and offers.
Dhamaka’s offers are Signature Card discount up to 20 to 30 per cent, Dhamaka Night offer with 50 per cent discount, and regular 20 to 30 per cent discount.
Where is the main accused?
RAB said that Jasim Uddin Chishti is the key person of Dhamaka and he has wealth of more than Tk 250 crore and the money of Dhamaka’s customers also can go there.
Asked where is Jasim Uddin Chishti now, Commander Moin said he is also an accused in the case and now on run. Dhamaka COO and the other two during primary interrogation hinted then that Jasim might not be in the country now, he said adding, “We are looking for other accused including Jasim.
Commander Moin said more than one thousand people work for Dhakama and none of them has been receiving salaries since last June. “There is no opportunity to get a job in Dhamaka as they do not have a trade licence. They recruit employees in the name of other companies,” he said.
