Sometimes he is known as Colonel Ishtiaque. Sometimes a police officer, or sometimes- he is a service holder at the Secretariat. Boasting of such high-status job monikers, he became a millionaire owning multiple plots, properties and saving millions of taka cash in his several bank accounts. Despite being arrested multiple times by Rab and police for his acts, he never stopped being a fraud.
Recently this conman, an ex-police officer named Mahbubur Rahman who was sacked on grounds of
fraudulence while attending his service- has been arrested from Kha-para of Gaibandha, and his mysterious, controversial activities have come out in public.
Police informed that ex-officer Mahbub, from Sundarganj Upazila of Gaibandha- got his job as a police officer in 2011 who was assigned to the Secretariat. Soon after that, he started to allure people with exciting job offerings at the Secretariat, by using the names of several secretaries. Through his fake promises and excellent con-skills along with powerful connections, he successfully managed to gather Tk 4 Crore taka from people and started to acquire properties every month in his village.
His massive number of properties includes multiple lands, shops, buildings and a palace-alike apartment worth Crores which is located in city’s central point Kha-para. He got fired from the police department in 2014 for violating the conducts and regulations- as well as for his fraud acts.
However, he did not stop. He took an alias of Colonel Ishtiaque, acquired mobile sim card under this fake moniker and then restarted his blackmailing business.
With the help of his brother (a peon at the secretariat), he started to live in Dhaka at rented hotels and resumed his fraud acts by promising jobs. With those fake offerings, he took money from several people from Rajshahi’s Baghata and multiple areas of Sylhet and transferred those moneys into several banks, including his own bank accounts and his wife’s.
He then bought a piece of land for Tk 26 and built his Crore-taka made lavish apartment on his land where he started to live with his wife and children. Along with this land and apartment, he also bought multiple shops and properties in Dhompur. Besides, he managed to get his wife a job in a school through giving 20 lakh taka bribe. People started wondering over the sudden millionaire status of an ex-police officer – and soon they began to question him about his earnings and properties.
Mahbub, the suited-booted smart conman began to overshadow all the doubters’ doubts by addressing himself under different aliases and professions from time to time. Sometimes he addressed himself as a Colonel in the Army; sometimes he addressed himself as a service holder in the secretariat or sometimes, he just addressed himself as a businessman from Dhaka. Accused for his continuous blackmailing, he got arrested several times- but never really stopped his deceptive acts.
With the fake promises of providing jobs, Mahbub took Tk 62 Lakh, then Tk95 lakh and then 30 lakh taka from two people named Rabiul Islam and Motiur Rahman frozm Rajshahi’s Bagha Upazila. After waiting for a long period of time for their desired and promised jobs, they claimed their money back from Mahbub. He then escaped and travelled into Gaibandha and continued telling people that he works in the secretariat.
On 18th January, 2017- two cases were filed against his fraud acts in Rajshahi’s Bagha police station. PBI investigated the cases and found Mahbub guilty- thus the PBI went to Gaibandha from Rajshahi, arrested the fraud Mahbubur Rahman and brought him back to Rajshahi.
