Shahiduzzaman Shimul, Satkhira: Police have arrested an NGO director who was hiding in Satkhira after embezzling customers' money.
Satkhira Sadar Police arrested him in a raid on a house next to the Mayerbari temple in Satkhira's old town on Wednesday (February 26) afternoon.
The arrested person's name is Arifa Khatun. She is the director of Premier Islamic Savings and Loan Cooperative Society Limited. She is also an assistant teacher at Maaskhola Government Primary School in Satkhira.
Her husband, Kamrul Islam, worked as the manager of the company. However, he fled when he saw his wife being arrested by the police.
Police said that director Arifa Khatun has been arrested in a fraud case filed by NGO worker Reena Parveen, daughter of freedom fighter Azizur Rahman of Khejurbaria Parulia village in Debhata upazila.
Reena Parveen said that she joined the Premier Islamic Savings and Loan Cooperative Society in the old Satkhira area of the city as a field worker in 2012. Later, the NGO director Arifa Khatun and her husband, manager Kamrul Islam, through her, took Tk 34.37 lakh through 64 accounts for the NGO's DPS from her two sisters, police members Ratna Khatun and Jharna Khatun, and Hena Khatun, Rezwana Khatun, Yusup Ali, Amena Khatun, Reshma Khatun, Imran and Rafiqul Islam Gang.
He said, even after almost 4 years of DPS, the couple had been threatening them under the umbrella of the former Awami League leaders in various ways, without paying them the money they were owed. Day after day, customers contacted them and became angry after not receiving the money. Several meetings were held at Satkhira Sadar Police Station regarding this. At one stage, on February 22, they admitted to paying the money owed to the customers but went into hiding without paying the customers. At one stage, they admitted to a lot of harassment and insults and filed a case with Satkhira Sadar Police Station on Tuesday (February 25).
The investigating officer of the case, SI Mahasin of Satkhira Sadar Police Station, admitted the truth of the incident and said that NGO director Arifa Khatun and her husband, manager Kamrul Islam, embezzled DPS money saved and deposited by more than two hundred customers.
The matter was investigated based on a written complaint filed by NGO worker and NGO client Reena Parveen.
He said, even though both parties sat at the police station, the accused requested not to accept the case and said that they would return the customers' money. Later, they threatened and humiliated the plaintiff instead of paying the customers' money and the husband and wife went into hiding. When a case was registered in this incident, a raid was conducted and NGO director Arifa Khatun was arrested from a house in the afternoon. However, it was not possible to bring him under the law as the NGO's manager and director, Arifa Khatun's husband, Kamrul Islam, fled.
