Dhaka Bureau: The money paid by customers for changes in car ownership, license renewals, and electricity bills, instead of going to the government coffers, went into the pockets of the cycle. Basically, a gang embezzled two and a half crores from Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) by hacking their servers. These are the gang leaders: Shahriar Islam (26), his associate Md. Azim Hossain (27), Md. Shimul Bhuiyan (32), Rubel Mahmud (33), Faisal Ahmed (23) and Anichur Rahman (23).
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) gave this information in a press conference on Monday (May 22) morning after raiding Mirpur, Kafrul, and Gazipur headquarters of the capital and arresting six persons, including the master of this gang, from different areas. RAB spokesperson Khandaker Al Moin Khan said, “The arrested Shahriar is the mastermind of this fraud ring.” He enrolled in software engineering at a private university and worked for various private IT organizations in the capital without completing his studies. Computers, mobile phones, SIM cards, pen drives, check books of various banks, and other equipment, including cash worth Tk 1 crore, 89 lakh, and 659, were seized from them.
He said that Computer Network Service (CNS) Limited Bangladesh filed a complaint with RAB on May 10 after receiving a discrepancy regarding mobile banking. RAB’s investigation revealed the issue of hacking. Software development company CNS has been working with BRTA under contract for 10 years. They collect BRTA customers’ vehicle ownership change, fitness, tax token, vehicle registration fee, and other ancillary fees through various banks and online banking. A RAB spokesperson said, quoting the preliminary investigation, “The gang hacked the payment gateway of the Bangladeshi server of CNS. Then, through the brokers, the customer collects the car. He took money from customers and updated all the information on the server. Collected money for various activities, including vehicle ownership change, fitness, tax token, vehicle registration fee, and other ancillary fees, and gave them money receipts for payment.
None of the money collected was deposited in the government’s coffers. He also said, ‘The arrestees prepared a total of 389 money receipts generated by their software using fake codes from April 12 to May 10. Through this, 1 crore and 20 lakh rupees were embezzled. Apart from this, in November and December 2022, the gang hacked Desco’s website, created transaction IDs, and stole about one and a half crore rupees through mobile banking.
