Photo: Collected
A ring was running a sex business by trapping young women with the lure of making them models. Through this long-running operation, a ring has become the owner of crores of taka.
CID says the ring would target young women on social media with advertisements for attractive salary jobs, talent hunting, and modelling to trap them. Then, after obtaining personal photos, they would blackmail them into forced online sex work. The Cyber Police Centre of the Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested eight people, including the mastermind of the ring, on charges of trapping hundreds of young women over a long period and using them as modern sex slaves through highly sophisticated methods.
The accused are - medical student Md. Mehedi Hasan, the mastermind of the ring, and his main accomplice and cousin Sheikh Jahid Bin Sujan, Jahid Hasan Kankan, Tanvir Ahmed alias Dipto, Syed Hasibur Rahman, Shadat Al Muiz, Susmita Akter alias Poppy, and Nayna Islam. They were arrested on Tuesday in raids conducted in various areas of Dhaka, Satkhira, Chandpur, and Jashore.
12 mobile phones used for creating pornography and blackmailing young women, 20 SIM cards, one laptop, and ATM cards from various banks used for transacting the earned money, chequebooks, and thousands of nude photos and videos were seized from the arrestees.
This information was provided by Additional IGP Mohammad Ali Mia, the chief of CID, at a press conference at the CID headquarters in Malibagh, Dhaka, on Wednesday afternoon.
He said, "CID discovered a terrible ring that would open fake Facebook IDs and pages on social media under false names, and force young women into prostitution through blackmail by cleverly obtaining objectionable photos and videos from them in the name of freelancing work, attractive jobs, making models, and talent hunting. This ring mainly targeted young women, including those who were victims of family breakdowns and had financial problems. The ring would call them for interviews in the name of giving job opportunities. Then they would take objectionable photos by promising opportunities in various advertisements. Initially, they would fulfill the demands and needs of the young women interested in work. Then they would gradually force them into antisocial activities."
The CID chief said that Mehedi Hasan and his cousin Sheikh Jahid Bin Sujan formed the ring. He said, “Both of them are medical students. Under the guise of medical science, they would trap young women, sexually abuse them, as well as force them to create adult content and engage in various antisocial activities on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. In the last 7 years, they have earned about 100 crore taka. With this money, they have bought vast amounts of land in Jashore, Satkhira, Khulna, and Dhaka. They have built luxurious houses. Information has been found that they have also deposited huge sums of money in their relatives' bank accounts.”
How the ring operated: Initially, the ring would post job advertisements, sometimes for creating models, sometimes organising 'Talent Hunt' competitions on Facebook and other social media. They would open Telegram groups with those who responded. Then, after building a good relationship, they would obtain objectionable photos of the girls by saying they would send them to foreign buyers. They would then force them to make naked video calls or directly engage in antisocial activities by threatening to make those semi-nude photos viral. The ring's Telegram groups have thousands of subscribers who would stay connected to these groups by paying a specific amount.
The ring would secretly record everything from the video calls. Then the ring would force the victims to engage in sexual relations. This is how hundreds of young women became modern sex slaves in their hands. After a long investigation, CID's Cyber Police Centre was able to identify the mastermind of this ring and his main accomplices.
CID's preliminary investigation reveals that the ring has a strong network both domestically and internationally. They have hundreds of channels under various names with several lakh subscribers. By forcing women of various ages into video calls and prostitution, and by selling those secretly recorded videos, the ring has earned about 100 crore taka. They used MFS or Mobile Financial Services for monetary transactions. In addition, information has been found about their thousands of dollars in transactions in cryptocurrencies.
This ring also knew all the tactics to hide from law enforcement agencies. As a result, although they used hundreds of mobile SIMs, none of them were registered with real National IDs. In this case, they would take advantage of the ignorance of low-income people. SIM cards would be obtained by giving a small amount of money.
The ring had Telegram premium accounts and various paid cloud services for content exchange and subscriptions. These two young, terribly clever medical students have several thousand women under their control. There are also TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram celebrities. About 10 lakh nude photos and 20 thousand adult videos secretly recorded have been found on the accused's mobile phones and laptops.
A case has been filed against the arrested ring members at Paltan Police Station under the Pornography Act and Cyber Security Act.
Messenger/Disha
