Bangladesh arrests self-styled 'friend of forest' for extortion during Mujib Year

Police have arrested a man on charges of extortion from businesses for tree plantation during Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary.

The suspect, Zahidur Rahman Iqbal, used the Mujib Year logo in letters seeking money for planting trees as part of the celebration while identifying himself as “Banbandhu” or “friend of forest”, police said.

During the arrest at Shah Ali Tower in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar on Tuesday, the law enforcers seized around 260 seals, 184 documents processing files of various organisations, Mujib Year logos along with 500 letters containing the prime minister’s messages, two CPUs, two printers, a scanner, two monitors, a laptop, two mobile phones and a car.

Iqbal sent letters to around 40,000 organisations using the Mujib Year logo as well as the prime minister’s messages to demand money, said Harunor Rashid, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The alleged fraudster used to introduce him as the chairman of an organisation called Tree Plantation, and chairman and CEO of so-called firms Consultant Group Ltd, SME Consultant Ltd and EEF Consultant Ltd, Harunor said at a press conference on Wednesday.

“But he couldn’t show any papers of these companies. The fraudster embezzled money by promising the victims loans through influence in Bangladesh Bank,” the DMP deputy commissioner said.

The police started a case against Iqbal on charges of fraud and were preparing to seek his remand to find out if others were involved with his illegal scheme.

Businessman Shamim Ahmed from Sirajganj, one of the alleged victims of Iqbal’s scam, said Iqbal took more than Tk 200,000 from him promising him bank loans.

But Iqbal’s men beat Shamim up when he demanded repayment after failure to secure the loans, Shamim added.