Qcoom Scam: RJ Nirob arrested

Police arrested Humayun Kabir alias RJ Nirob, head of sales (communications and public relations) at controversial e-commerce platform Qcoom, early yesterday after an aggrieved customer sued him and five others, including Qcoom owner, for fraudulence.

Later in the day, Nirob was produced before a Dhaka court, which placed him on one-day remand for questioning, said Hafiz Al Faruq, additional deputy commissioner of police (Tejgaon division).

He said they arrested Nirob, 38, at his house at Noboday Housing in the capital’s Adabar area around 3:00am after a Qcoom customer filed a case against six people with Tejgaon Industrial Police Station.

The other accused are: Qcoom owner Ripan Mia, his wife Syeda Tasmina Tarin, Qcoom Chairman Ayub Ali, Chief Operating Officer Sajedir Rahman Sajib and Delivery Executive Tanvir Chowdhury Veer.

The plaintiff, Abdullah Khan Shoisob, said he along with some of his friends paid Qcoom Tk 56.57 lakh in advance for 23 motorbikes in June last year. They were assured that the motorbikes would be delivered in 30 days of the payment.

The delivery has not been made yet, he said, adding that Qcoom officials blamed the Covid-19 for the delay.

On September 29 this year, Shoisob and other customers went to the Qcoom office to know when they would get their deliveries. However, Ripan and Nirob misbehaved with them. At one point, they dragged them out of the office, the plaintiff said in the case statement.

He also said payment gateway Foster Payments was supposed to transfer customers’ money to Qcoom only after the delivery of products.

He alleged that Foster Payments was involved in the scam. The Daily Star could not reach it for comments on the matter.

On October 3, the Detective Branch of police arrested the Qcoom owner on charges of fraudulence in a case filed under the Digital Security Act with Paltan Police Station.

The DB said that the company owes its customers at least Tk 250 crore.

Besides, at least Tk 397 crore that Qcoom collected from customers through orders for motorcycles is stuck with payment gateways, said AKM Hafiz Akter, the DB chief.

The company offered mind-boggling discounts on motorcycles, which tempted many to hand over their money in advance.

Unable to deliver the motorcycles, Qcoom started to give cheques of Tk 1.3 lakh against each order.

On realising that Qcoom was not providing products to customers but was instead handing them cheques, the payment gateway Foster froze the money, Akter said.

Police says at least two dozen e-commerce platforms are under their radar.

Among the cases filed over e-commerce scam, the Criminal Investigation Department of police is investigating 24 cases filed by customers for fraudulence.

‘GOVT NOT TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LOSSES’

The government will not take responsibility for those who suffered losses while trading on different e-commerce platforms in the country, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said yesterday.

He made the comment while speaking as the chief guest at a programme in Rangpur.

He also said they received complaints of corruption and irregularities against 10 to 12 such platforms and that they were looking into the matter.

There are 20,000 e-commerce organisations in the country, and many are directly or indirectly involved with them. People incurred losses as they went to buy products from the platform at cheaper rates, he said.

The minister then claimed that the government was previously unaware of the tactics used by the platforms as nobody informed it about the matter. So, the government will not shoulder any responsibilities, he said.

But the government will act against the corrupt organisations, he said, without naming any of the platforms.

About the hike in onion prices, Tipu said the prices started soaring in local markets after onion prices increased in India due to torrential rain. He said the government was monitoring the market and the prices will go down if they drop in India.

[Our correspondent in Dinajpur contributed to this report.]