The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) have nabbed five members of a gang involved in duping retired persons and making off with their hard-earned savings.

At a press conference at the PBI Dhaka metro office in Agargaon on Saturday, it was said that the gang members were arrested on Friday from a house in Pallabi of the capital city.

The arrested five are Mohammed Haroun Ar Rashid, Sanaj Saha, Shamsul Alam Majumdar, Aminul Islam and Mohammed Moksedur Rahman.

PBI stated that so far this gang has conned 12 persons including a retired secretary, joint secretary, a senior bank official and other senior officers. The gang managed to swindle Tk 14.8 million from just one joint secretary alone.

PBI additional DIG Mohammed Mainul Hasan said that the accused would first place a false job vacancy advertisement in the newspapers.

The ad would state that priority would be given to retired bankers and retired civil and military officers. When the interested persons applied, the swindlers would target certain ones among them and bring them to their sham office.

Mainul said the con men would then bring in another one of their associates, dressed in a suit, tie and hat, speaking in Hindi and acting as an Indian ‘marwari’ businessman. At one stage they would start up a card game, ‘winning’ hundreds of thousands of taka from the ‘Indian businessman’. They would cleverly win the job applicants’ confidence and propose that they become partners in their business. They would take money as investment from the targeted applicant and tell him to contact them later. But then they would pack up and leave the office with no trace.

PBI Dhaka Metro’s special police super Mohammed Abul Kalam Azad said so far they had received complaints from 12 persons who were cheated.

However, they felt, the number was probably higher. Cases have been filed against the arrested persons and a search is on for others of the gang.