Bangladesh police on Tuesday arrested a man who faked his murder on social media — using red fruit juice as imitation blood —in an attempt to deny the payment of $1,800 on a cricket bet, a senior officer said.
A video of Adel Shikder’s purported murder got shared by 10,000 users after which the search for his body was started by the police.
“He hired a film make-up artist who is an occasional videographer to film his ‘murder’ after he lost a bet of 1,800 on the Nidahas trophy final between Bangladesh and India,” senior Dhaka police official Kamruzzaman Sardar said.
Police said three people are seen in the video. Two appeared to slit the throat of Shikder, 28, after holding him down.
Bangladesh lost the March 18 match in Colombo when India’s Dinesh Karthik hammered a last-ball six to clinch an improbable victory.
“He had won 40,000 taka from the same person during the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka semi-final, which Bangladesh won. He spent the money and then he made a bigger bet in the final,” Sardar said.
“I did it so that he did not seek any money from me. I did not realise it would cause all this,” Shikder said when brought before the television cameras.
Betting remains to be 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.