A case has been filed against four people including former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) central vice-president Mohammad Maruf Elahi Roni in connection with the embezzlement crores of government money by forging savings certificate servers of Bangladesh Bank.
Additional director Abul Khair Md. Khalid on behalf of the central bank filed the case at the capital’s Motijheel Police Station on Thursday (October 30) night.
The other accused in the case are Mohiuddin Ahmed, NRBC Bank Dinajpur sub-branch customer Md. Arifur Rahman Mim, and his identity checker Al Amin.
The police have already arrested Arifur Rahman from Motijheel area.
The case statement said that the fraud ring entered the Department of National Savings (DNS)’s national savings certificate (NSC) server without authorization, changed the customer’s information and transferred the savings card money to another bank account.
This way, an attempt was made to embezzle money by showing multiple savings card encashment using the central bank’s user ID.
Between October 23 and 27, an attempt was made to transfer a total of Tk75 lakh to the accounts of Dutch-Bangla Bank and NRBC Bank by changing the information of three savings certificates.
However, Tk50 lakh was recovered and deposited back into the government sector with the central bank’s quick action.
The statement mentioned that the Tk25 lakh savings certificate purchased in the name of SM Rizvi, an officer of the Audit and General Accounts Office, was fraudulently cashed and deposited into the account of Arifur Rahman Mim. Later, it was withdrawn from two branches in Dhaka.
Arifur Rahman’s transaction limit was Tk2 lakh, but it was increased to Tk10 lakh through fraud.
Then, Tk50 lakh was deposited against two savings certificates in the name of former JCD leader Maruf Elahi Roni in the name of Dutch-Bangla Bank. Both the savings certificates were five-year Bangladesh Savings Certificates.
However, the central bank blocked the money before it could be withdrawn as the fraud was detected in time.
Bangladesh Bank, the Ministry of Finance, BFIU and NRBC Bank have formed separate investigation committees after the incident. Three officials with the relevant user IDs and passwords have been withdrawn and the relevant computers have been seized.
An official of Bangladesh Bank’s Motijheel office said that new user IDs and passwords have been issued to strengthen security. Efforts are underway to normalize operations from Sunday.
Since the incident, all types of savings certificates have been stopped and cashing has been suspended at Bangladesh Bank’s Motijheel office. This has put customers in trouble.
Currently, more than Tk340,000 crore of savings certificates is in circulation, of which about 30% is sold through Bangladesh Bank’s Motijheel office. Meanwhile, the BFIU has already seized all the suspicious accounts.
