Police nabbed five fake muftis and hafezes on charges of scamming people out of money in the capital’s Turag and Mirpur areas on Monday.

The arrestees are Abdul Mannan, 42, of Rajbari, Kamrul Islam alias Kamruzzaman, 34, of Faridpur, Asadullah Al Galib, 26, and Aminur Rahman, 39, of Jashore and Shawkat Ali Khan, 43, of Gopalganj.

The CID official said the accused at first collected phone numbers from directories of different institutions, including Dhaka University and Dhaka Club.

Later, they phoned people and said that they are mufti, hafez or imam of mosques. They asked for money from them on various grounds.

For example, the officer said, one of the fraudsters called somebody and requested them to donate money saying the wife of their muezzin died of cancer at a private hospital and now they needed some cash in order to pay the hospital bill.