Prominent Bangladeshi actress held by elite anti-terror force over 'specific allegations'

DHAKA: Bangladesh's elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism force RAB on Wednesday detained the country's well-known film actress Pori Moni after raiding her house here "on the basis of specific allegations", days after two models were arrested on blackmail charges.

Moni, 28, who has over lakhs of followers on social media, initially claimed that unknown people attacked her house and sought police protection even as a huge contingent of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) cordoned off the building in an upscale Dhaka neighbourhood.

"We have specific charges against her (Moni) but we will explain our action later," RAB spokesman Major Roisul Azam Moni told journalists as she was detained from her house while hundreds of onlookers thronged the scene.

A senior official, on the condition of anonymity, said Modi amassed huge wealth through "immoral activities".

Live TV footage showed an entire floor of her multi-storied house with shelves filled with liquor and other types of narcotics.

The RAB, which draws men from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, carried out the raid along with the police in presence of TV cameras.

On June 14, the actress levelled allegations of attempted rape and murder on a Dhaka businessman.

She had sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's intervention to bring the "culprits" to justice.

On her allegations, the police arrested businessman Nasiruddin Mahmood, also a former footballer and student leader, along with two others.

They were granted bail after being imprisoned for 18 days.

Last month, a club filed a case with the police accusing Moni of vandalising their bar.

The raid came three days after the police arrested models Faria Mahbub Piasha and Mou Akter after raiding their Dhaka residences from where contraband drugs and liquor were seized.

"They (the two models) are members of a group that carry out organised blackmailing" People from well-off families used to visit their houses to be entrapped eventually," a police spokesman had said after their arrest.