A 16-day 'Trade' by 8 Youths
NGO vanishes with Tk 50 lakh of 500
A local Non-Government Organisation (NGO) has vanished without a trace with about Tk 50 lakh of its 500 subscribers who deposited money to get 'easy loans'.
Villagers said that about 16 days ago eight youths, led by one Arif Hossain, opened an office under the banner of 'Palli Unnayan Samity', meant a rural development cooperative, at a rented house at Bridge Bazar under Dakua union Galachipa upazila.
The NGO started its work in three unions of Dakua, Chiknikandi and Kalagachia and Arif Hossain identified himself as the manager of the NGO while others as its organisers.
The gang moved from door to door and formed over 100 groups each having five members. For each group the tricksters also nominated a chairperson. They promised a minimum loan of Tk 10,000 and maximum Tk 70,000 on condition that the willing subscriber made 10 percent down payment to qualify for the loan. Hundreds of innocent villagers immediately fell into the trap.
The gang them asked the subscribers to collect the loan from its office on Wednesday and Thursday. But when the villagers arrived at the office on the scheduled days, they found the office locked.
Setara Begum, 45, a housewife of Pardakua village under Dakua union, said that on Monday Arif Hossain, manager of the NGO, visited her house and took Tk 7,200 promising to issue a loan of Tk 70,000 and Wednesday was the day for disbursement of the amount.
“But at about 10:00am when I came to the office of the NGO, there was nobody and the door of the office was locked,” Satara said.
Rashida Begum, 40, chairman of a group of Kalagachia village said Rasel, one of the organisers of the NGO, took Tk 26,000 from all five members of her group promising to give them loan.
“I along with all my members came to the NGO office on Thursday and found it locked. My rickshaw puller husband is now scolding me for giving the money without his consent,” she added.
Bebak Chandra Das of Chiknikandi said that the tricksters collected Tk 4 lakh from about 80 women of his village.
Contacted, SM Ziaul Haque, OC of Galachipa police station, said he had heard about the matter but said that nobody filed any complaint with the police station in this regard.
“If anybody files a complaint, I will definitely take proper steps after investigation,” the OC said.
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