The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained 12 members of two groups who bought train tickets using other people's NIDs and mobile numbers ahead of Eid to sell them online at higher prices when the demand grew, reports bdnews24.com.
The black-market gangs have already bought at least 500 train tickets for the next ten days, said RAB-3 Commanding Officer Lt Col Md Firoz Kabir at a media briefing at the Kamalapur Railway Station platform in Dhaka following the arrests on Friday.
"Sohel and Ariful, both identified with single names, used to operate the black-market gangs from Thakurgaon and Dhaka respectively. A RAB team launched the drive to arrest them on Thursday night."
"The RAB team seized 10 suspects from Dhaka and two others from Thakurgaon."
Kabir said, "They are from two groups. One group bought the train tickets when the sales went online. Another group circulated Facebook ads to sell them at a higher price. They received payment via bKash and Nagad by sending soft copies of tickets to interested customers."
"The RAB team apprehended two members of such gangs from an area near the Mouchak intersection in Dhaka. One of them is Manik and another is Bakul. From them, we learnt that Manik had started to work for scalping circles with Shohel and two others from Thakurgaon - Abu Raihan and Anis."
He said, "The RAB team has recovered the train tickets from them. They had both the hard and soft copies of the tickets. Tickets for the Dinajpur-bound Ekota Express train were sold at Tk 3,000 each."
The RAB official said, "Anis and Raihan were detained through Manik and Bakul. Raihan works at a computer shop. He would buy a large number of tickets in one go using fake SIMs and NIDs.
"They have a big WhatsApp group to discuss the demand for the tickets and other issues. Those who are in Dhaka run the group."
"Raihan and Anis used to provide tickets to Sohel and Manik. And Manik and Bakul used to sell them through Facebook ads.
Ariful Islam, a booking assistant for a private company working at Kamalapur Railway Station, is also among the detainees.
