Police arrest bank manager, nine others for trying to steal Tk 65m from Walton account

Police have arrested 10 people, including a banker, for attempting to steal Tk 65 million from a bank account of Walton Group.

The arrestees are Md Zakir Hossain, 35, Yasin Ali, 34, Mahbub Ishtique Bhuiyan, 35, Anisur Rahman, 42, Md Dulal Hossain, 35, Md Aslam, 53, Abdur Razzaque, 48, Zakir Hossain, 44, Md Anwar Hossain Bhuiyan, 56, and Md Nazrul Islam, 50.

Zakir Hossain, manager of SME sales team at Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited’s Karwan Bazar branch, is the leader of the gang that had tried to steal Tk 120 million from the United Group earlier, police said.

Citing statements of the suspects, police said the gang had been planning to steal money targeting big industrial groups or owners of large companies by collecting information from DBBL’s server.

“Their work began inside the bank. Many others from outside may also be involved with the gang,” said Md Asaduzzaman, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The suspects were arrested in several parts of Dhaka on Thursday night after Walton filed a complaint at Bhatara Police Station.

Police said the suspects used Real-Time Gross Settlement or RTGS, a system to transfer funds instantly from one bank to another, in the scheme.

On Jan 25, they submitted two forms to electronically transfer the funds from Walton’s account with DBBL at Bashundhara branch to NI Corporation, and BD Limited’s account with AB Bank’s Motijheel branch.

During scrutiny, the bank found it was a fraudulent scheme.  

Zakir collected information of the accounts, Yasin forged documents and Ishtiaque opened the NI Corporation account, police said.