The money moved while they were in police custody

Two young men were taken from a Chattogram home by a team identifying themselves as Detective Branch officers and held for nearly 12 hours inside a restricted intelligence unit at the city police headquarters.

They were released without charge after thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency and hundreds of thousands of taka were moved out of one man’s accounts during their detention, according to interviews, financial records, CCTV footage and videos reviewed for this report.

The allegations implicate Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Shariful Alam Chowdhury Sujon and Assistant Sub-Inspector Md Bashir Uddin, both attached to the Lawful Interception Cell, or LIC, of the Chattogram Metropolitan Police.

Aktaruzzaman Shakil and his friend Mohammad Monsur said an eight-member team arrived at House No 36 on Road No 8 in K-Block, Halishahar, on the morning of September 4. 

The team searched the house, seized 14 mobile phones and Shakil’s private car, and took both men away.

Hedayet, the building’s security guard, told Daily Waadaa that members of the team identified themselves as DB police. A phone number left with the guard was subsequently verified as belonging to ASI Bashir of the LIC.

The operation was led by AC Sujon and ASI Bashir, according to information obtained during the investigation. But instead of being taken to a police station or a DB office, Shakil and Monsur were brought to the LIC inside the CMP commissioner’s headquarters.

The location is significant.

The LIC operates from a restricted, digitally secured room on the ground floor of CMP headquarters. Its door is marked “Restricted Access,” and entry is controlled through fingerprint authentication. The unit uses information technology for surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Sources familiar with its operations said the LIC is not authorized to independently conduct raids or detain suspects.

Yet Shakil and Monsur said they were held inside the unit for nearly 12 hours. No arrest warrant was presented to them, they said. They were not shown as arrested in a criminal case and were eventually released without charge.

Online gambling and cryptocurrency 

A police source said the operation was prompted by information that Shakil was working as an agent for online gambling and held substantial funds in a Binance cryptocurrency account.

But no formal case was brought against him. Instead, Shakil alleges, AC Sujon initially demanded one crore taka after the two men were brought to CMP headquarters. The demand was later negotiated down to $13,500 and 10 lakh taka, he said.

Financial records reviewed for this report document a series of transactions during the hours Shakil says he was being held.

At 9:44:18 pm on September 4, $999.99 was transferred from his Binance account. At 9:53 pm, another $5,165 was moved.

At 10:16 pm, 600,000 taka was transferred from Shakil’s bank account to his Binance account and converted into $4,702. Twelve seconds later, records show that cryptocurrency was transferred out.

Shakil alleges that two associates of AC Sujon who were not police officers, along with several police sources, participated in the process.

Earlier that day, Shakil and Monsur said they had been taken from CMP headquarters to the nearby Kutumbari Restaurant for lunch in a microbus displaying an “Emergency Medicine Supply” sticker. They were then returned to the LIC, where, according to Shakil, negotiations over money continued.

The financial trail did not end with the cryptocurrency transactions.

At about 10:45 pm, video footage reviewed for this report shows ASI Bashir driving Shakil’s car, registration Chatt Metro-Ga 14-5814, out of the CMP commissioner’s compound. A man identified by Shakil as an associate of AC Sujon was in the front passenger seat. Shakil and a police source were seated in the back.

Seven minutes later, withdrawals began.

Bank records show that between 10:52 pm and 10:58 pm, 400,000 taka was withdrawn from a BRAC Bank ATM in five separate transactions.

At 11:06 pm and 11:11 pm, another 80,000 taka was withdrawn from Shakil’s Nagad account in two transactions.

Shakil and Monsur were released afterward. Their phones and Shakil’s car, however, were initially kept.

Transactions under threat 

Shakil said the transactions were made under threat.

“They picked us up from our home without a warrant and held us hostage at the CMP office,” he told Waadaa, “Eventually, through threats and intimidation, they emptied everything — the dollars in my Binance account, the money in my bank account and the cash in my mobile financial account.”

Shakil, who runs a cattle farm called Member Agro, said the officers accused him of gambling because of his online gaming activities and threatened to implicate him in a criminal case.

Monsur corroborated the account of how the men were detained.

“When they detained us from the house in Halishahar, they identified themselves as DB police,” he said. “After taking us to the CMP office, they subjected us to psychological torture.”

There is also evidence that police retained control of Shakil’s property after his release.

At 7:17 pm on September 5, video footage reviewed for this report shows Shakil’s car still inside CMP headquarters, parked near the Shaheed Bir Muktijoddha Police Superintendent Nazmul Haque Barracks. A police vehicle marked “CMP-190” was parked beside it.

Shakil said he was called back to CMP headquarters later that night and his car was returned. His 14 phones were not.

He alleges that AC Sujon subsequently demanded another 500,000 taka or a new iPhone in exchange for returning the devices. Shakil also accused Sujon of retaining private photographs and videos from his phones and threatening to publish them on social media.

A subsequent phone call raises further questions about what happened to one of Shakil’s devices.

A recording of a conversation at 1:05 am in September. 7 appears to capture an exchange between Shakil and AC Sujon. The call was made from Shakil’s own number, which Shakil alleges was then being used by Sujon along with his handset.

In the recording, Sujon can be heard pressing Shakil. Shakil responds: “Sir, how many ways can you punish a person? ... I already told you I would give you an iPhone as a gift.”

The September 4 operation also appears not to have been the officers’ first attempt to locate Shakil.

CCTV footage reviewed for this report shows AC Sujon and ASI Bashir at Shakil’s former rented residence in the Kalpolok Residential Area of Bakalia on the afternoon of September 3, a day before Shakil and Monsur were detained.

Neither AC Sujon nor ASI Bashir provided an explanation of the allegations when a reporter from Waadaa sought their response on Tuesday. AC Sujon was not at the LIC office when the reporter visited.

ASI Bashir was there but declined to answer questions about the operation, the detention of the two men or the financial transactions.

“I cannot say anything about these matters,” he said. “Please speak to sir (didn’t mention which sir).”