Bangladeshi Man Arrested After Faking His Own Death to Get Out of Cricket Bet

Police in Bangladesh have arrested a ma who faked his own murder on social media to avoid paying a cricket bet. He was arrested in the country’s capital city of Dhaka.

The prank went over too well, spelling disaster for 28-year-old Adel Shikder. A video of his apparent murder went viral on social media, reaching more than 10,000 shares within days. This sudden notoriety produced a search for the man’s body.

“He hired a film make-up artist Imran 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,” Kamruzzaman Sardar, a senior police official in the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“He had won 40,000 taka from the same person during the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka semi-final, which Bangladesh won,” Sardar added. “He spent the money and then he made a bigger bet in the final.”

Although Bangladesh was the favorite to defeat India, the team lost the March 18 match in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

Three people are featured in the video, police reported. Two men appeared to slit Shikder’s throat while holding him down. They used red fruit juice syrup as fake blood on his body. Police also reported that photos of Shikder’s slit throat were shared on social media.

Thinking the video would get him clear of his bet obligations, Shikder sent it anonymously to the person to whom he had lost the bet.

Shikder called his younger brother, changing his voice and telling his brother his dead body could be found in Chittagong, about 125 miles southeast of the capital. Relatives and police went there to search for the corpse, but failed — because there was no body.

The case unravelled after police arrested the make-up artist on Saturday. On Sunday, they arrested Shikder in the central district of Faridpur, Sardar told AFP.

When asked why he faked his own death, the man proved remarkably candid. “I did it so that he did not seek any money from me. I did not realise it would cause all this,” Shikder said in a televised event.

Gambling is illegal in Bangladesh, but underground cricket betting has undergone a surge in recent years. AFP reported that millions of dollars are at stake during international and Bangladesh Premier League games.