A ‘honey wedding’ trap
“You cannot live in low temperature in Canada. Instead, I can shift my 200-crore business to Dhaka and you can easily take care of my business along with me,” she promised him
Businessman Md Nazir Hossain, 70, from the old town of Dhaka, met a woman at Thai Signature Restaurant, Gulshan on July 12 following an advertisement in a national daily.
In the advertisement, the woman, claiming to be 37 years old, having Canadian citizenship, being an established businesswoman, and lastly a divorcee, said she was looking for a groom, an elderly one, who would ultimately take over her business.
At the first meeting, Nazir Hossain, who was now single after his wife's death, was enamored by the 'caring' behavior of the woman and instantly handed over his passport and Tk15,000 to her.
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In the course of their acquaintance, the woman received around Tk1,79,50,000 from the man to pay the international courier cost and other expenses to shift her Tk200-crore business to Bangladesh.
When Nazir, one of the top edible oil importers of the country, wanted to marry the woman and go to Canada, she demanded more money and told him that he was too old to go to a low-temperature country like Canada.
"You cannot live in low temperature in Canada. Instead, I can shift my 200-crore business to Dhaka and you can easily take care of my business along with me," she promised him.
On September 1, when he went to receive a courier, which was to contain the woman's business documents and dollars, he found it stuffed with only A4 size papers.
After that, the woman was not seen anywhere and her phone was found switched off. Nazir filed a fraudulence case with the Gulshan Police Station on September 17.
This revelation came at a press conference on Friday, where Nazir Hossain related how he was deceived.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday night arrested the woman, Sadia alias Jannatul Ferdous, on allegations of cheating people in the name of marriage.
CID Additional DIG Sheikh Rezaul Haider at the press conference at Malibagh said, "Though the educational qualification of the woman is only SSC, she fooled many people. The victims have lost crores of taka by falling into her trap."
Jannatul had been cheating people with such advertisements in newspapers for the last 10 years.
She divorced her first husband and started cheating with her second husband.
The CID has found her property to be worth Tk30 crore in and around Dhaka.
During the operation, three passports, 10 mobile phones, memory cards, 6 stamps, numerous SIMs and an account book of the money she had swindled out of people.
