A Dhaka court has sent Debu Prasad Roy, father of popular film actress Puja Cherry, to jail in a case filed on charges of embezzling Tk13.20 in the name of film production.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Hasib Ullah Pias issued the order on 18 April, court sources confirmed today.
According to the case’s first information report (FIR), the victim, Mizanur Rahman, filed a fraud and embezzlement case at the Cantonment Thana of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on the same day. Cantonment Thana police subsequently sought his arrest and detention, which the court granted.
How the alleged embezzlement took place
The FIR states that on 15 September 2019, at around 10am, Debu Prasad Roy came to the victim’s house in West Matikata, under Cantonment Thana, and took Tk 5.50 lakh in cash as a loan, claiming it was for film production business.
Later, citing the same business, he took an additional Tk 50 lakh through Standard Bank Limited. On 15 May 2024, he took another Tk6 crore in cash by executing three non-judicial stamps of Tk100 each.
Additionally, a total of Tk1.20 crore lakh was sent to multiple mobile financial service numbers — including bKash, Nagad and Rocket — at various times. Most recently, on 30 March at around 3pm, the victim sent another Tk10,200 via bKash at the accused’s request.
The victim claims that despite a long time passing, the accused did not return any money. When asked for the money, he kept making various excuses and later began issuing threats.
Taking advantage of the victim’s simple trust, the accused embezzled a total of Tk 13.20 crore, the FIR alleges.
Cantonment Thana OC Rakibul Hasan and the court’s prosecution division confirmed the matter.
