The men are Ali Haider, 24, managing director of United Corporation, Joynal Abedin, 45, GM (admin) of Amena Enterprise, and Alamgir Hossain, 38, office manager of Amena Enterprise.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested them from Motijheel and Gulshan between Monday and Tuesday morning after being tipped off about the men. Tk 8 crore in cash and cheques of Tk 10 crore were seized from them.
The elite force has been trying to arrest three others – United Enterprise owner Mahmudul Hasan, United Corporation owner Atiqur Rahman Atiq and Amena Enterprise owner Mia Nuruddin Ahmed — in connection with distributing money to influence the election.
Rab chief Benazir Ahmed told reporters that they had detected transactions of Tk 73 crore in one month from Mahmudul’s account.
“Tk 150 crore was distributed across the country in the last two months,” he said, claiming that Tk 200 crore was brought from Dubai through Hundi and banking channels.
United Enterprise and United Corporation owners set up the two offices in Motihjeel City Centre two months ago to distribute the money, he said.
BNP’s Shariatpur-3 constituency candidate Mia Nuruddin Apu was given around Tk 3.6 crore from the total amount, Benazir said. Clashes broke out in Shariatpur on Monday, soon after Apu received the money.
“They planned to disrupt the upcoming national election,” the Rab chief said.