DHAKA: Bangladesh police have detained a man who faked his murder on social media — using red fruit juice as imitation blood — to avoid paying out $1,800 on a cricket bet, a senior officer said Tuesday.
A video of Adel Shikder’s purported murder was shared some 10,000 times within days, prompting a hunt for his body.
“He hired a film make-up artist who is an occasional videographer to film his ‘murder’ after he lost a bet of 150,000 taka ($1,800) on the Nidahas trophy final between Bangladesh and India,” senior Dhaka police official Kamruzzaman Sardar told AFP.
Bangladesh lost the March 18 match in Colombo when India’s Dinesh Karthik hammered a last-ball six to clinch an improbable victory.
Police said three people are seen in the video. Two appeared to slit the throat of Shikder, 28, after holding him down.
They used red fruit juice syrup as fake blood on his body while photos of a slit throat were shared on social media.
Shikder sent the film anonymously to the person to whom he lost the cricket bet.
“He had won 40,000 taka from the same person during the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka semifinal, which Bangladesh won. He spent the money and then he made a bigger bet in the final,” Sardar said.
Police said Shikder phoned his younger brother by changing his voice and told him the body was in Chittagong, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of the capital.
Relatives and police searched for the corpse there after Shikder’s panicked parents lodged a complaint.
The case unraveled after police arrested the make-up artist on Saturday and the next day Shikder was detained in the central district of Faridpur, Kamruzzaman said.
“I did it so that he did not seek any money from me. I did not realize it would cause all this,” Shikder said when paraded before television cameras.
Betting is illegal in Bangladesh. But in recent years underground betting on cricket has boomed, with millions of dollars changing hands during internationals and Bangladesh Premier League games.
Faked death goes viral after failed cricket bet
Faked death goes viral after failed cricket bet
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
