Editor’s note, October 2026 — Published in 2021, when no arrests had been made in the Dhamaka case. The investigation was completed and the amounts established; the company’s managing director was subsequently reported to be living in the United States. What happened next follows the original article.
The CID filed the case after finding evidence of siphoning off Tk117 crore, which they collected by alluring the customers with exceptionally low-priced products.
Dhamaka Chief Operating Officer Sirajul Islam Rana – an accused in another case filed by a customer against 11 Dhamaka officials with Tongi police station – was arrested by a law enforcement agency on Tuesday, but was released after questioning.
On 10 September, CID filed a case against Dhamaka Shopping Managing Director SMD Jasim Uddin Chisti, his wife, their children, a director of the company, and four other organisations.
According to the Financial Crime Unit of the CID's Organised Crime Division, most of the money was smuggled into the United States by the MD of Dhamaka Shopping and his family members. However, no one has agreed to give a clear statement as to why the CID is not arresting the rest of the accused who are still in the country.
Humayun Kabir, special superintendent of CID's Financial Crime Unit told The Business Standard, "We are still contemplating the arrest of the accused. Once the verification of information is complete, legal action will be taken against those involved."
The official, however, did not want to comment on whether the accused could have fled the country by this time, or whether they were being given a chance to do so.
Meanwhile, CID's Assistant Superintendent of Police Al Amin Hossain, the plaintiff of the case, did not respond to the repeated phone calls made by this correspondent.
According to CID sources, Jasim Uddin Chisti, his wife and two sons have been staying in the United States since July last. They have dual citizenship.
Among the accused, Nazimuddin Asif, managing director of Invariant Technologies Limited and also a nephew of Dhamaka MD, and Safwan Ahmed, director (operations) of Dhamaka Shopping, are still in the country.
A CID source claimed that they are working to nab Asif and Safwan, and they will be arrested as soon as the high command decides.
According to the case statement, Dhamaka Shopping collected Tk803.51 crore from around five lakh customers by making various lucrative offers. In the beginning, Dhamaka Shopping delivered products to some customers, but they stopped delivering goods to anyone and embezzled the money. The amount of money and assets smuggled may increase further if the deposit and withdrawal slip of the bank accounts of the accused persons and institutions, and information of assets outside the country, are found.
Since 30 June, CID has been investigating money laundering allegations against Dhamaka Shopping.
Accused in the case
The accused in the case are SMD Jasim Uddin Chisti, managing director of Dhamaka Shopping and Invariant Telecom, Saida Rokshana Khanam, director of Invariant Telecom, their son Tashrif Ridwan Chisti, chairman of Invariant Technologies, Mashfique Ridwan Chishti, director Invariant Technologies, Safwan Ahmed, director of Dhamaka Shopping and Invariant Telecom, Nazim Uddin Asif, managing director of Invariant Technologies.
Invariant Telecom Bangladesh Limited, Micro Trade, Invariant Technologies Limited, and Micro Trade Food and Beverage Limited, owned by the Chisti family, have also been accused in the case.
Case filed with Tongi police station
A businessman named Shamim Khan from North Auchpara area of Tongi filed a case against 11 people, including the chairman and managing director of Dhamaka Shopping, with Tongi police station in Gazipur on 23 September.
The accused in the case are Jasim Uddin Chishti, managing director of the company, M Ali alias Mojtaba Ali, chairman, Sirajul Islam Rana, chief operation officer, Devkar Dey Shuvo, chief business officer, Nazim Uddin Asif, Safwan Ahmed, head of accounts, Amirul Hossain, deputy manager, Asif Chishti, Imtiaz Hasan, head of system category, Ibrahim Swapan, vice president, and Nirodh Baran, deputy managing director.
The plaintiff claimed that he placed orders worth Tk11.5 lakh from the site on 20 March. He was told that the products would be delivered within 45 days.
After waiting for a month past the due date, Dhamaka issued two cheques as a refund, but they bounced due to insufficient balance in the accounts, according to the case documents.
What happened next
The Criminal Investigation Department filed a money laundering case against Dhamaka for roughly Tk117 crore, having initially suspected around Tk50 crore — the figure rose as the investigation progressed. Across the sector, the CID established that eight e-commerce firms moved about Tk7.05 billion, with E-Orange accounting for roughly Tk232 crore.
The CID found the money had been taken abroad through hundi, the informal transfer system that leaves no banking trail. It has completed investigations into eight of the e-commerce cases.
Dhamaka's managing director, Jashim Uddin Chishti, and his family were reported to be living in the United States. Arrests were made elsewhere in the sector — QCoom's owner Ripon Mia was held by Dhaka Metropolitan Police's detective branch, and the CID arrested SPC World's managing director Al-Amin along with his wife Sharmin Akter.
Why the delay in this article mattered
The gap between a case being filed and anyone being detained is the window in which assets and people leave, and hundi makes the first of those nearly impossible to reverse. Money moved through an informal network has no correspondent bank to freeze it, no SWIFT message to trace, and no counterparty with a licence to lose.
That is why the High Court's order was directed at officials rather than at the companies: it asked the finance, commerce, information and home secretaries, the Bangladesh Bank Governor, the ACC chairman and the head of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit to determine whose negligence allowed the schemes to operate for as long as they did. By the time a case is filed, the recoverable money has usually already gone.
