4 held with fake stamps worth Tk 20cr

Police have arrested four members of a gang which produced counterfeit revenue stamps and non-judicial stamps and then circulated those in the market to cash a hefty amount of money.

A team of detective branch (DB) of police conducted drives in Dhaka and Narayanganj on Thursday and yesterday and seized stamps worth around Tk 20 crore along with stamp-making devices and chemicals from a factory in Jatrabari's Matuail, said AKM Hafiz Akter, additional commissioner of DB, at a press briefing at DMP Media Centre yesterday.

The arrestees are -- Abu Yusuf alias Parvez alias Rana, Atiar Rahman Sabuj, Nasir Uddin and Nurul Islam alias Sohel.

Police said the gang had been producing various types of counterfeit revenue stamps, non-judicial stamps and trade licences of city corporation for a long time in their factory in Matuail.

The detectives seized 13.40 counterfeit revenue stamps worth Tk 20.2 crore, 480 fake court fees worth Tk 1.94 lakh, Tk 3.60 crore in cash, 11 seals of Bangladesh Post Office and Bangladesh Bank, stamp-making devices and chemicals, and cheque books of three private banks.

A case was filed against the arrestees with Motijheel Police Station in this connection.

The official said the fraudsters had been running the business on a limited scale from 2017 to 2019 using computers and printers. Afterwards, they set up a secret printing house in Matuail in 2019 and started it on a large scale.

Police are trying to find out about other members of the gang.