The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Diamond World Managing Director and controversial businessman Dilip Kumar Agarwala in a raid on his Gulshan-1 office in the capital on Tuesday night. 

RAB-1 commander Lt Col Zahid Karim confirmed the arrest to Bangladesh Pratidin.

During the operation, which lasted for more than three hours, RAB members scrutinised papers and searched other related documents of the business entity which is accused of laundering money abroad.

Earlier, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police launched an investigation into allegations of money laundering against the controversial businessman and other stakeholders related to the Diamond World.

The allegations include siphoning off a huge amount of money abroad by importing gold and diamonds into the country through smuggling, selling high-quality glass pieces as real diamonds at showrooms in different districts resorting to fraudulence, controlling gold smuggling syndicates in Dubai, the UAE and Singapore, possessing three jewellery shops and eleven houses in India's Kolkata, amassing vast properties in Dubai and Canada, and becoming a director of a bank illegally by investing Tk40 crore through forgery.

bd-pratidin/GR