Savings certificate embezzlement: Former Chhatra Dal leader accused

A case has been filed with capital’s Motijheel police station over the embezzlement of Tk 2.5 million (25 lakh) by manipulating the NSC system of the Department of National Savings. The case was lodged Wednesday, by Abul Khair Md Khalid, an additional director of Bangladesh Bank. Four people have been accused in the case.

The accused are Md Arifur Rahman, Mohammad Maruf Elahi, Al Amin, and Mohiuddin Ahmed. Of them, Arifur Rahman was arrested Thursday evening from the Motijheel area, said Motijheel police station officer-in-charge (OC) Mezbah Uddin. Speaking to Prothom Alo, he said that efforts are underway to arrest the remaining accused.

According to sources involved in the investigation, Mohammad Maruf Elahi is the ringleader of the group. He is the vice-president of the previous central committee of Chhatra Dal. Before that, he served as joint general secretary of an earlier committee and was the convener of the Amar Ekushey Hall Chhatra Dal unit at Dhaka University.

When contacted about Maruf Elahi, Chhatra Dal’s current general secretary Nasir Uddin told Prothom Alo that Maruf Elahi was the vice-president of the previous committee but holds no position in the current one.

Sources said that based on preliminary findings from the investigation into the embezzlement, those who withdrew the money were identified and the case was filed accordingly.

According to the case statement, on Monday, Monjur Alam, an audit officer at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, while helping his senior officer SM Rezvi fill out his tax return, noticed there was an attempt to encash a Tk 2.5 million (Tk 25 lakh) savings certificate purchased in Rezvi’s name on 13 October. However, Rezvi had never applied for the encash.

Later, through fraudulent means, such as changing the customer’s registered phone number and increasing the withdrawal limit from Tk 200,000 (Tk 2 lakh) to Tk 1 million (Tk 10 lakh), the certificate was encashed on 23 October withdrawing the Tk 2.5 million (Tk 25 lakh). The gang also tried to encash two more savings certificates worth Tk 5 million (Tk 50 lakh) belonging to two other individuals but failed.

According to the Department of National Savings’ policy, the profit and principal amount of any savings certificate must be deposited into the same bank account provided by the customer during purchase. Any change in information, or withdrawal of profit or principal, must be requested at the office from which the certificate was issued.

Once an application is received, a one-time password (OTP) is sent to the customer’s registered mobile number. The customer must then show the OTP to the official immediately, who uses it to make the requested change following the prescribed process. Every step leaves a digital footprint in the central server.

However, over the past year and a half, many customers have complained that they have been unable to withdraw funds from their bank accounts, even when remittance or savings certificate payments were deposited.

Because of this, some customers have recently requested to change their designated banks. In some cases, institutions have facilitated the bank changes considering customer difficulties. Officials at Bangladesh Bank’s Motijheel office suspect that fraudsters may have exploited this process to commit the embezzlement.

An individual purchased a Tk 2.5 million (Tk 25 lakh) savings certificate from Bangladesh Bank’s Motijheel office last Thursday. His linked bank account was with the Agrani Bank’s National Press Club branch.

Four days later, on Monday, the certificate was encashed and the money transferred to another person’s account at NRBC Bank’s Dinajpur sub-branch. Shortly afterwards, the money was withdrawn from NRBC Bank’s Shyamoli branch in Dhaka.

On the same day, the group also attempted to encash Tk 3 million (Tk 30 lakh) through Dutch-Bangla Bank and Tk 2 million (Tk 20 lakh) through NRB Bank in a similar manner, but Bangladesh Bank detected and blocked those transactions in time.

Bangladesh Bank officials spoke with the savings certificate holders in these three cases, who all confirmed that they had not applied to encash their certificates and had not received any OTPs on their phones. Following the incident, three officials who had access to the NSC system passwords were removed from their duties, and three new officers were assigned.

According to concerning officials of the Bangladesh Bank, the fraud was carried out using system passwords, meaning those with access to the passwords are under close scrutiny. Investigators are also probing whether anyone else outside the bank was involved.

As of August, according to the Department of National Savings, customers hold savings certificates worth Tk 3.4 trillion (Tk 340,071 crore) across banks and authorised institutions. These certificates are bought and encashed through around 12,000 branches of Bangladesh Bank, state-owned and private commercial banks, the Department of National Savings, and post offices across the country.