Burden of Tk250 crore debt on 22 day labourers!

They had never even stepped into a bank, nor did they understand how banking works. Many of them can barely sign their names due to lack of education. They live hand to mouth, sometimes struggling to afford even salt for their rice. Yet, on paper, they collectively carry loans worth Tk 250 crore from United Commercial Bank (UCB). The burning question remains--who took these loans in their names, and how was it possible? Families are already shattered by anxiety and despair—one man even died of stroke after receiving a bank notice.

Victims allege that their signatures were taken at tea stalls or hidden locations without any explanation. They were not allowed to read what they were signing. Instead, they were handed small amounts of money and told that financial assistance had come for them through a project. Later, huge loans—ranging from Tk 7 crore to Tk 10 crore in individual cases—were disbursed in their names. With interest, these sums have now ballooned to Tk 15–20 crore each. Bank notices have left these ill-fated men stunned and helpless. Most of them had never seen such large sums of money in their entire lives.

According to sources, former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Jabed is the alleged mastermind behind this fraud. Using poor villagers as fronts, he laundered the money abroad.

He operated from the shadows through a close-knit circle that included several complicit bank officials.

It was further revealed that Abul Kalam, a resident of Eidgar in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar, played a key role in deceiving the villagers. He was later found to be working directly under the instructions of former minister Jabed. While Kalam collected signatures from the poor, the rest of the fraudulent transactions were executed through different branches of UCB.

One of the victims, Mizanur Rahman from Gorjonia, Cox’s Bazar, received a loan notice in 2023 for several crores of taka. Shocked, he suffered a stroke and died. His wife, now struggling with three children in a fragile hut on a hillside, said her husband’s national ID card was taken and only returned three months later. When the bank notice finally arrived, the shock killed him.

Similarly, Nurul Islam, another villager from Eidgar, lives in a dilapidated house with his wife and three children. Survival itself is a daily struggle, yet a UCB document shows him as the borrower of Tk 21.5 crore from the bank’s Chattogram branch.

Islam insists he never knew about such a loan. A few weeks ago, he began receiving multiple bank notices from UCB’s Chawk Bazar branch. Only then did he learn that loans were taken in his name, with documents falsely listing him as the owner of “Islam Traders” and land in Patiya.

Nurul Islam told reporters
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, they took my national ID card, saying it was for aid. They said I would get rice, lentils, and other goods. I have never even set foot in a bank—so how could I have taken such a massive loan?”

Like him, many others—Shahjahan, Mohammad Taiyeb, Zohirul Islam, and at least 22 others from Eidgar and Baishari in Naikhongchhari—were shown on record as borrowers of Tk 250 crore in total. In reality, they are all day labourers who can barely read or write.

Locals recall that in 2020, during the pandemic, a man named Mizanur Rahman collected national ID cards from villagers under the pretense of government relief. Later, they were taken to Patiya and asked to sign some papers in English. Afterward, they were given Tk 20,000–Tk 40,000 each as “financial aid” and sent home—only to later discover that they were trapped in loan scams orchestrated by government insiders.

Similarly, fraudsters in Baishari, Naikhongchhari lured villagers with promises of jobs and collected their IDs through a man named Nurul Bashar. They too were taken to Patiya, made to sign documents in English, and handed small amounts of cash. Later, bank notices arrived for loans worth crores, followed by legal cases.

Though Mizanur Rahman and Nurul Bashar helped gather IDs, they too were ensnared in the fraud. Abul Kalam, Nurul Bashar’s brother-in-law, had long been involved in Patiya’s business circles. Through him, the scamsters—Mustafizur Rahman, Shahjahan, and Nurul Anwar—managed to trap many others, including Rahman and Bashar themselves.

Victim Mizanur Rahman told the media “Abul Kalam told me to collect some ID cards, saying they would bring funds from abroad to distribute as cheap financial aid.”

Nurul Bashar added that
“They made us sign on two sheets—one white, one blue. We had no idea what they contained.”

Local representatives report that many victims have since fled their homes out of fear. Some even left their jobs to go into hiding. Families are suffering immense hardship, and villagers say the situation cannot continue like this.

Investigations revealed that fraudsters Nurul Anwar, Abul Kalam, Shahjahan, and Mustafizur Rahman, all originally from Patiya, had set up offices at JK Tower in Nandankanon, Chattogram. They recently shifted to B&B Tower in Teen Pol area.

When journalists visited, only two security guards were present.

The guards said the group frequently handled banking documents there but had since disappeared.

At UCB’s Chawk Bazar branch, where many of these loans were shown, the current branch manager said he had joined here recently.

The operations manager admitted that notices had indeed been sent for defaulted loans.

However, when asked how illiterate day labourers could be approved for such massive sums, bank officials could not provide any answers.

They claimed they only acted on instructions from the head office.