Police officers in Natore’s Lalpur upazila have dismantled an active cyber crime syndicate following targeted twin raids, arresting five suspects accused of hijacking social media accounts and extorting money from unsuspecting victims. The coordinated police operations, conducted across two separate locations over the weekend, led to the recovery of ten mobile phones used in the digital fraud schemes alongside 40,000 taka in cash extorted from victims.
Acting on precise intelligence, a specialized police squad executed the initial raid at approximately 5:00 pm on Saturday in the Moharkaya (Bhangapara) area of Lalpur. Officers surrounded and searched the residence of one Md Sujan Mondal, apprehending three core suspects on site: Md Maruf Ali, 21; Md Mehedi Hasan Sabuj, 23; and Md Atikur Rahman, 20. Alongside the arrests, law enforcement personnel seized five smartphones and recovered 40,000 taka in cash traceable to fraudulent digital transactions.
Building directly on leads secured during the initial swoop, police units launched a second operation in the early hours of Sunday at around 1:30 am in the Maharajpur Ghoshpara region. The late-night raid culminated in the arrest of two further suspects, identified as Taskin Ahmed Sweet, 18, and Md Salim, 22. Officers confiscated five additional smartphones from their possession, bringing the total number of seized communication devices to ten.
Investigators disclosed that the syndicate had been operating across the region for an extended period, systematically targeting personal accounts on popular social media and messaging services including Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and IMO. Once control over a user profile was compromised, the suspects routinely impersonated the genuine account holders to send urgent distress messages or financial requests to friends and family, deceiving victims into transferring funds via mobile financial services.
Following the twin operations, law enforcement authorities formally filed cases against all five individuals under Sections 17(2)(b), 21(2), 22(2), and 27 of the Cyber Security Act, 2026. On Sunday afternoon, 30 August, police produced the accused before the local magistrate’s court, which ordered them to be remanded directly into judicial custody pending trial.
Confirming the details of the crackdown, Shafiqul Islam, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Lalpur Police Station, reaffirmed that local law enforcement agencies are stepping up technical monitoring to root out digital syndicates. He stressed that police drives targeting account hijacking and online financial extortion will continue without pause, warning that those engaged in digital fraud will face the full rigor of the judicial system.
