The Rapid Action Battalion arrested a businessman and his associate on charges of embezzling Tk 15 crore from a bank by mortgaging highway land and murder attempt.

Golam Faruk, 50, and his associate Feroz Al Mamun, 35, were arrested at Uttara in the capital on Thursday.

Faruk took loan of Tk 15 crore from a bank by making fake documents and mortgaging government land of Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway at Azampur of Uttara, said the battalion’s media wing director Khandaker Al Moin, in a briefing on Friday.

The accused also admitted their involvement in attempt to murder,  extortion, cheating, forgery and intimidation in the capital’s Badda, said Moin.

Faruk and Feroz were arrested in a case filed with the Badda police station recently for murder attempts on a land-owner in Badda on March 26 and April 6.

Faruk started his business as a car importer in 2000. He received loan of Tk 7 crore from a private bank for the business purpose.

As the bank pressured him to repay the loan, he planned for forging a land on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway which was acquired by the government in 1948, the official said.

Faruk with help of some government officials at different offices made falls documents against the land in 2006. Later, he bought the land in his wife’s name in 2010. In another deed, he acquired the land from his wife. Then he mortgaged the land to the bank and took another Tk 15 crore as loan, said Moin.

As he, did not repay the loan, the bank went to acquire the mortgaged land in 2013 and noticed the forgery, said Moin

Faruk, later forged plot number of the land and showed a nearby private property, owned by another person, as his land.

Faruk is named in eight cases filed by a private bank and Badda’s land owner, on various charges, including cheating and forgery the official said.