SM Badrul Alam, 45, is a top class swindler. He often introduced himself as an army officer or a journalist. He used a lot of bluster to confuse and impress others, often talking about crores of Taka and assets worth millions. In reality, he has passed only class eight and the tales of his wealth and affluence are concocted.
After being arrested by the serious crime investigation team of the Dhaka city Detective Branch (DB), he is in prison.
Senior AC of police Nazmul Islam says: “Badrul is a professional impostor. He persuaded many to invest in fraudulent projects and in the end embezzled their money. There are several cases against him.”
DB sources say Badrul is a small time trader and has a medicine shop in Babubazar of old Dhaka. He possesses a fake ID card of a journalist. One of his aunts was an AL MP and an uncle owns several shops in Anam Rangs Plaza in the city.
He used to inflate his social image, impress people and take money from then. It is suspected that that he took Tk 5 million from a journalist and his three friends.
Badrul hails from Jashore and had been cheating people for a long time. He often presented himself as a journalist cum businessman, owning property and flats in Dhanmondi with huge amount of money in his wife’s bank account.
His main trap was to lure people into giving him money to invest in exchange for high interest. He used to pay back some money initially and after a few months, he would disappear.
DB officials say that Badrul is shrewd and left his phone in Noakhali to deceive the police. He was eventually caught in a sting operation near the Shilpakala Academy.
There are several cases against Badrul, who used to change his number regularly to evade arrest, said the police.