CID arrests 9 over online gambling
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The Criminal Investigation Department arrested nine persons for their involvement in online gambling using 1xbetbd.com and some other platforms.
The arrested are - Nazmul Haque, Sawpan Mahmud, Aslam Uddin, Murshid Alam Lipu, Shishir Molla, Mahfuzur Rahman Nawab, his wife Monira Akter, Sadik, and Masud Khan.
The nine were arrested at Meherpur, Chuadanga and Cox’s Bazar in separate drives on Saturday.
Of them, Shishir Molla is a sales representative of mobile financial service Nagad while Mahfuzur and Swapan are Nagad agents.
CID additional deputy inspector general for cyber policing division Kamrul Ahsan said mobile financial services, especially Nagad, are being misused frequently for online gambling.
He said that they suspect that some officials of the mobile financial services might be involved in the act.
He said that sales representatives of MFS are being selected without proper verifications, contributing to the problem.
Investigating the gambling case, CID found that some sales representatives of Nagad asked their agents to get involved in online gambling transactions for boosting their transaction amount, said Mahmudul.
CID investigators said that some sales representatives and agents have sold their business-dedicated SIM cards to other people to facilitate online gambling.
Additional DIG Kamrul said that business-dedicated SIM cards are only allocated to agents, representatives and managers, but they were selling those to other people.
Illegal and suspicious transactions are being made using those SIM cards, he said.
The arrested people told CID investigators that online gambling is rampant in districts like Meherpur, Chuadanga and Cox’s Bazar.
Over 1.5 lakh users were found online at the same time in three online gambling platforms, including 1xbetbd.com and mostbetbd.com.
Kamrul said that their investigations found over 70 people being involved in operations and money transactions through online gambling platforms in Bangladesh.
CID special police super Rezul Masud said that online gambling increases during international sports tournaments like World Cup, Indian Premier League, Big Bash, and English Premier League.
Between Tk 3 crore to Tk 5 crore are being transected a day in those gambling platforms, the CID officer said.
A spokesperson of Nagad said that they were aware of the development and had been looking into it.
He said they would co-operate with investigating agencies in this matter.
