Businesspeople and expatriates in Chattogram were threatened over the phone and told to pay extortion of anywhere from a few lakh to a few crore taka, according to police and people targeted in the scheme. The cash was collected by couriers and ultimately routed to Mobarak Hossain Emon, alias David Emon, a top Chattogram gang figure, through hundi — an informal money-transfer system — and several bank accounts. (One lakh is 100,000; one crore is 10 million.)
Separate people handled collection in different areas, mainly depositing the cash with a man police identified only as Yusuf, who sent it on to Emon through hundi and bank accounts.
Police arrested Emon along with three associates last Wednesday as he tried to flee to India from Jashore. Known as a follower of fugitive criminal Sajjad Ali, alias Boro Sajjad, Emon faces at least 15 cases. He was produced before a court on Thursday, which ordered him held in jail.
Emon’s followers were accused of attacking and vandalizing the under-construction building of businessman Jasim Uddin in the Bara Dighirpar area of South Pahartali ward, under Chattogram City Corporation, last Monday after a demand for 20 lakh taka went unpaid. After a case was filed over the attack, the extortion demand was raised to 50 lakh taka. Earlier, on July 13, his followers were accused of attacking and vandalizing DDN, an internet service provider, on the city’s Bakalia Access Road over a 2 crore taka demand. Human-chain protests and news conferences followed both incidents, demanding an end to the extortion and Emon’s arrest. Police said Emon had grown increasingly reckless in extortion and other criminal activity after August 5, 2024.
Detailed intelligence before a demand
Before demanding money, Emon’s people gathered detailed information on a target’s income sources, current assets and any under-construction buildings, police said. They also compiled profiles of family members. Emon has area-based informants for this.
Once the information was gathered, the target would get a call from a foreign WhatsApp number demanding anywhere from a few lakh to a few crore taka. Callers would recite where each family member lived and what they did. If the money was not paid as demanded, David Emon threatened to open fire, and attacks followed when payment did not arrive on time.
A businessman who paid Emon five lakh taka early this month, a resident of the Bara Dighirpar area of South Pahartali, spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he remained fearful even after Emon’s arrest.
He said that late in June, David Emon called him from a foreign WhatsApp number, identifying himself as an associate of Boro Sajjad, and demanded 20 lakh taka, citing the man’s under-construction multi-storey building and various businesses. Emon described in detail where each of his children studied and threatened to kill his college-going eldest son if the money was not paid.
The businessman said he reached out in desperation to politicians and people from many walks of life, and had several of them call Emon, but Emon would not listen. His under-construction building was then attacked and a security guard was beaten.
“After that they called me again. I told him I did not have that much money to pay and pleaded with him to reduce it. In the end five lakh taka was fixed. Emon then said his people would take the cash, from wherever they were told,” the businessman said.
He said a man later called from a foreign WhatsApp number, identifying himself as one of Emon’s people, and asked him to bring the money to the city’s Oxygen area. “When I refused to go, two young men came to the front of my house at Bara Dighirpar on an auto-rickshaw. They took the five lakh taka in cash and left in the same vehicle,” he said.
At least five other victims described similar experiences, all saying they had paid extortion in cash to couriers. None agreed to be named, saying Emon could harm them if he were released on bail and that many of his associates remained free.
Police searching for Yusuf
Police said Emon’s people in Chattogram city and district collected the extortion cash and took it to a restaurant in the city’s GEC intersection area, where they handed it to the man they identified only as Yusuf. He then sent the money on through hundi or bank accounts, on Emon’s instructions.
Officers said this emerged in Emon’s initial questioning, and that police were trying to catch Yusuf, whose arrest would reveal more about where the extortion money went.
Kazi Mohammad Tarek Aziz, additional superintendent of police for Chattogram (Hathazari Circle), said Emon told investigators he took extortion money in cash as a tactic to stay out of reach. Those who collected it were usually not from the area but came from elsewhere. One team gathered information, another collected the cash, and another carried out attacks, vandalism or shootings, with a separate team for each task, he said.
Chattogram Superintendent of Police Masud Alam said more important information could emerge once Emon was placed on remand, and that police had already recovered a weapon from him. He urged victims of extortion or attacks to cooperate by giving police information.
From cricket to crime
Emon is a resident of the Kanchannagar area of Fatikchhari upazila in Chattogram. The eldest of two brothers and two sisters, he had a father who worked in Oman and died a few years ago.
Locals said Emon developed an interest in cricket while at school, cycling from Kanchannagar to the Fatikchhari College field to practice, and later training regularly while staying at an aunt’s home in the city’s Oxygen area. He played for the Chattogram Brothers Academy and trained at Kazir Dewri Stadium.
After August 5, 2024, he joined the group led by Sajjad Ali, alias Boro Sajjad. Emon became one of Sajjad’s key associates after another aide, Sajjad Hossain, alias Chhoto Sajjad, was arrested in Dhaka on March 15 last year.
Mobarak Hossain Emon drew attention in a string of criminal incidents, including a double murder in the Bakalia area on March 30, 2025, and the killing of a criminal known as Dhakaiya Akbar near the city’s Patenga sea beach on the night of May 23 that year. He faces at least 15 cases.
Police said Emon is reported to have carried 15 to 20 firearms and is skilled in their use. In the Bakalia double murder, he was also responsible for hiring gunmen and motorcycles, they said. Officers said Emon is one of two people now leading criminal operations in Chattogram on behalf of the fugitive Boro Sajjad; the other is Mohammad Rayhan. The group was previously led inside the country by Chhoto Sajjad, and after he was jailed, Emon and Rayhan took over.
Police said at least 50 shooters and associates are active in Boro Sajjad’s force, and that Rayhan and Emon regularly demand extortion from individuals and businesses on his behalf.
Asked about the extortion allegations on his WhatsApp number a few days before his arrest, Emon said: “It’s true I take money, but only from rich people.” Asked why he had chosen the path of crime, he said: “Since childhood I wanted to become a big cricketer, or else become rich. I’m on this path to become rich.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report