Detectives on Monday frustrated a scheme of four swindlers to cheat Tk 10 lakh out of a businessman.

The Detective Branch (DB) plainclothesmen rescued the businessman named Mohammad Rezaul Karim, recovered and returned the money to him and arrested the frauds posing as NGO workers at a fourth-floor office in the city's Uttara Model Town.

Karim owns six-bigha (each bigha equals to 33 decimals) of land at Araihajar in Narayanganj. The gang in the name of Poor Development Forum, an imaginary non-governmental organisation, contacted Karim and expressed their willingness to rent 18,000 square feet of floor space from him.

Karim had 2,000 square feet under a tin shed on his plot. The cheats requested him to build additional structures on some 15,000 square feet of land, for which they said he would receive an advance of Tk 50 lakh.

The gang told Karim Poor Development Forum was a well to do foreign NGO willing to invest in the country, and in exchange of the lucrative deal the four men asked a commission of Tk 10 lakh to be paid in advance. Karim accepted the proposal readily and 'in good heart'.

As per their agreement, Karim in the early morning Monday left his 2/F Abhoy Das Lane house with Tk 10 lakh and headed for Poor Development office at Road 30, House 9, Sector 4, Uttara. He reached the fourth floor of the five-storey building at around 8:00am.

Upon receiving the Tk 10-lakh as commission, the gang gave four bundles of notes, apparently all in 500 taka notes, to Karim, claiming to have paid Tk 20lakh and assuring to pay the rest on the following day.

But, the bundles were of 10-taka notes with 500-taka notes glued on the top and the bottom to make them look like bundles of Tk five lakh each. Not knowing that he was being conned, Karim refused to continue with the deal for only Tk 20lakh.

As soon as Karim demanded his money back, the gang threatened to kill him if he did not leave the office at once.

Minutes later, somebody knocked on the door, which made the cheats terrified. When they were persuaded to open the door, the DB men got inside and arrested Saiful Islam, Chinu Mia, Shamsul Haq and Shahjahan.

They were arrested and taken to the DB office at Minto Road. DB police later said they raided the office on a tip-off, but refrained from saying who did the warning.