A Dhaka court on Tuesday ordered that Haridas Chandra Tarani Das, an organiser of the construction of a large Ram statue in Palashbari of Gaibandha, be shown arrested in a fraud case filed with Uttara West Police Station in Dhaka.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Zakir Hossain passed the order, said prosecution division Sub-Inspector Helal Uddin.

Later, Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jashita Islam denied a bail petition from his lawyer, Basudev Guha.

According to the case documents, accused Obaidul Islam allegedly introduced himself as the owner of Anoy Developers and offered to provide the plaintiff, Mahbubur Rahman, with a flat in the capital’s Nikunja area.

The case claimed that Mahbub initially paid a total of Tk25.85 lakh for the flat. However, after receiving the money, Obaidul kept delaying the handover of the flat. When Mahbub asked for a refund, he allegedly refused to return the money.

At one point, Mahbub went to Obaidul’s office in Nikunja, where Obaidul told him about his business partner, Haridas, who told Mahbub that he did not have the money but had a flat that he could provide to him.

Trusting his assurance, the complainant paid another Tk45 lakh, and Obaidul and Haridas jointly took a total of Tk75.86 lakh from Mahbub, but did not hand over any flat, the case alleges.

Mahbubur Rahman filed the case against Haridas Chandra Tarani Das and Obaidul Islam with Uttara West Police Station on 24 August.

Earlier, on 12 July, CID Financial Crime Unit Sub-Inspector Saiful Islam filed a case with Uttara West Police Station accusing the defendants of laundering Tk9.35 crore. Later that night, Detective Branch police arrested Haridas from Palashbari upazila in Gaibandha.