Meghna Alam shown arrested in extortion case involving foreign envoys
Model and Miss Bangladesh Foundation Chairperson Meghna Alam was shown arrested today in an extortion case filed with Dhanmondi Police Station.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Masum Mia passed the order after Investigation Officer of the case Md Akhtar Morshed, an inspector of the Detective Branch of Police, produced her before the court with an application in this regard.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. In the application, police said, "Meghna Alam, her close associate Dewan Samir, and two to three others were involved in luring foreign ambassadors into love affairs with beautiful girls."
They conspired to extort Tk 50 lakh from each of the diplomats. The IO said in the application that Meghna needed to be shown arrested in the case for the sake of a fair investigation.
Denying the allegations, Meghna told the court that she had been falsely implicated in the case. She also claimed she did not know Dewan, and said that Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Bangladesh, Issa bin Youssef Al-Duhailan, had contacted her for building a relationship. She appealed to the court to reject the application filed for showing her arrested.
Public prosecutor Omar Faruq Faruqi told The Daily Star that Meghna informed the court the Saudi envoy had proposed marriage to her. She added that she never initiated contact with the envoy, but he frequently called and messaged her.
Meanwhile, the same court placed Dewan on a five-day remand in the case after he was produced before it with a seven-day remand prayer.
On April 15, Mohammad Abdul Alim, an inspector of Dhanmondi Police Station, filed the case against Meghna, Dewan, and two others.
According to the case statement, Meghna and Dewan, along with two to three unidentified individuals, are allegedly active members of an "organised fraud ring".
They reportedly used "attractive" women to lure diplomats and representatives of foreign missions in Bangladesh, as well as wealthy local businessmen, into romantic and illicit relationships, and then used various illegal tactics to extort money by threatening to tarnish their reputation, the plaintiff mentioned in the statement.
Dewan Samir is the CEO of a business organisation called KAWAII Group and owner of a manpower firm named Sanjana International. He also previously owned a company called MIRI International Event Management Limited.
As part of a scheme to gain access to diplomats and wealthy businessmen, Dewan allegedly appointed attractive and smart women as brand ambassadors in his companies, using them to blackmail diplomats and extract large sums of money, the case statement said.
They also reportedly held a meeting on March 29 at a Japanese restaurant in Dhanmondi, intending to demand $5 million from one diplomat, the statement said.
Earlier, Meghna was picked up from her residence in Bashundhara Residential Area in Dhaka on April 9.
On April 10, another Dhaka court ordered Meghna to be kept in jail for 30 days under the Special Powers Act. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sefatullah issued the order following an application by the Detective Branch (DB).
On April 13, the High Court issued a rule asking relevant government authorities to explain in two weeks why Meghna's arrest under the Special Powers Act, 1974 should not be declared illegal.
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