Extortion using mobile phone without proper registration has become a great threat in the country.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has made a major breakthrough in the fight against extortion with a number of raids in the city but they could not stop it.
RAB sources said officers of the elite force were ‘awestruck’ after discovering that nearly everyone- from students aged 14 to elderly school janitors- were involved in mobile phone extortion.
‘During calls, they identify themselves as some notorious criminals and then demand their victims to send them money or face the consequences- they’ve conned a huge number of people,’ RAB sources said.
‘It’s a very lucrative business. RAB identified at least 20 groups who are involved. They have agents in the capital to collect the extorted money and gather personal information about potential targets,’ sources said.
Extortion using mobile phone has been a great problem in Bangladesh since around 2001, when phone companies entered a price war and flooded the market with cheap cell phones, which were given out without proper registration. Last year, scores of people were arrested for mobile phone extortion but successful prosecutions are rare, police said. There was a call on the mobile phone line to a retired government official Mahabub Al-Amin on September 4. The caller, in a gentle yet firm voice asked him about his well-being and that of his family.
He seemed to know them all by name and their whereabouts. A soft-spoken Al-Amin appreciated his courtesy with a curiosity to know who was speaking on the other side of the phone.
‘I am calling from Shaddat’s gang. You have to give us Taka five lakh. I will call you at night to know your decision,’ Al-Amin quoted the stranger as saying on phone. The wait seemed too long and so the man called just after an hour and said, ‘My men would have visited you earlier but I stopped them because you were not informed.’
Two general diaries on phone threats were filed in the last week alone with Shah Ali police station in this connection.
We received about 60 to 70 complaints of phone threats every month,’ said a detective branch source. Numerous complaints of phone threats are reported to the Rapid Action Battalion, a highly placed source with the agency confirmed.
Most people switch off their phones or change their numbers and sit tight,’ said one DB official. ‘This might not be the best technique all the time as the extortionist realises how scared you are,’ he said. Law enforcers suggest it is the best to inform them once you receive the first call.
Meanwhile, the law enforcers said, the biggest barrier to tracking these criminals is the large number of unregistered mobile phones still out in the market.
Police also permanently disconnected at least 4,700 SIMs for demanding extortion using mobile phone, DB sources said.
Commander Sohail, Director of Legal and Media Wing of RAB told The New Nation yesterday that RAB has requested to the mobile phone operators not to sell unregistered mobile SIMs.
RAB seized at least 5,000 unregistered mobile SIMs in last six months and also arrested 20 people.
