Over the years, different law enforcement agencies have arrested several ringleaders who had made and sold thousands of fake National Identity Cards (NIDs) and made a lot of money.
These ringleaders have confessed to the law enforcers that their illegal business was made possible with the help of officials from different regional offices of government organizations, including the Dhaka office of the Election Commission (EC), who have access to the commission’s servers.
Officials at the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Detective Branch (DB) of police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
They noted that fraudsters first lure field-level election officials, who have access to the servers. Later, these officials share the necessary passwords with the criminals, who then go on to forge the cards. This way, regional data entry operators also benefit financially.
Replying to a query, two top officials of DB and RAB told the Dhaka Tribune on condition of anonymity that such gangs come up when a government organization does not function properly and fails to serve the public.
Due to the failure of these government organizations, some unscrupulous officials too benefit.
Officials from the EC’s NID wings also told this reporter that some access to a software called Card Management System linked to EC’s main server is with a few officials. Through compromising passwords to the software, they facilitate various malpractices in NID forgery. However, EC sources suggest that the commission has yet to take any strict measures in this regard.
A couple of months ago, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal issued a warning, saying the commission would take strict action against those behind NID card forgery.
Addressing the officers and employees of the commission, he said: “I will urge our colleagues to work with caution. If someone obtains NID illegally to conduct illegal activities, especially to occupy land, none of us should be involved in their illegal bids.”
“One can get puzzled, make mistakes, but if someone consciously commits a crime, then we will adopt a zero tolerance stance and take legal action against him,” he added.
But the commission till now has not been able to reveal the existence of any such gangs on its own.
How the gang works
CTTC chief Md Asaduzzaman said: “An organized gang of fraudsters had been making fake NIDs and changing NID information for a long time with the help of some EC officials.”
At a press conference on Wednesday, he also said that the CTTC has recently arrested a ringleader involved in making fake NIDs and a data operator of the EC in this regard.
According to the CTTC, the gang ran advertisements on social media and claimed they could retrieve lost NID cards, make corrections to existing cards, make digital copies of birth registrations, and also change names. The fraudsters also claimed that they could make Tax Identification Number (TIN) certificates and also provide Covid-19 vaccination proof.
Based on such information, the law enforcers on Wednesday arrested one Liton Molla from Pabna. Later, they also arrested Jamal Uddin, a data operator for the EC from Bagerhat.
During interrogation, Liton admitted that he used to collect information from the EC server to make fake NID cards. Jamal Uddin used to assist him in this regard.
Before completing the task, they used to collect fees from customers through mobile financial services. The CTTC found evidence that Liton earned a huge amount of money through this forgery.
On the other hand, Jamal has so far earned Tk10 lakh by compromising information on the EC server. He used to charge Tk3,000 for each one-time password (OTP) while entering the server.
In response to a question, CTTC chief Md Asaduzzaman said that some dishonest officials of the EC and the health directorate were involved with this ring.
Several teams are currently working to collect information regarding those involved in these illegal activities, the CTTC chief added.