During a raid on Steel Mill Bazaar at 11:00am, a Rab team held Md Safiuddin Ahmad, 31, who identified himself as a crime reporter.

The members of the elite force also recovered a false identity card issued by a fake agency -- Organisation of Crime Reporters, Bangladesh -- from his possession. The card carries the signature of one Sohel Chowdhury Rana.

During the interrogation, Safiuddin admitted that one Zahir gave him the identity card after he lost his job at a garment factory in Dhaka last month.

He also said Zahir and Rana are members of a syndicate that provides such identity cards to unemployed youths who uses the cards to cheat people out of money.

Safiuddin was handed over to Patenga police, sources said.