Robbery on Dhaka Elevated Expressway: Seven arrested, Tk 23 lakh recovered: DB chief

Police detectives arrested seven people from seven districts of the country who allegedly looted Tk 48 lakh from a vehicle on Dhaka Elevated Expressway posing as members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on October 10.

This was the first such daring heist on the newly opened expressway. Though the incident occurred nearly two weeks ago it was made public only when Harun-Or-Rashid, additional commissioner the Detective Branch of DMP held a media briefing on Sunday.

The expressway was opened to traffic on September 3, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated its 22.5KM Kawla-Farmgate stretch.

During the briefing at the Media Centre of DMP at Minto Road here Harun named the arrestees as Sabuj Mia alias Shyamal, 39, Shahrul Islam alias Sagar, 23, Abu Yusuf, 41, Didar Didar Munshi, 35, Ferdous Wahid, 35, Alamin Duari Dipu, 42, and Daud Hossain Mollah, 39.

He said the detectives recovered the private car used in the robbery, fake RAB jackets, handcuffs, toy-like pistols, wireless and mobile phone sets, ornaments brought with the looted money and Tk 23.85 lakh in cash.

The DB officer said the gang had long been robbing in a ‘cutout’ system and even they changed the nameplates of the used vehicles and damaged mobile phone sets.

On October 10, businessman Sohel Ahmed Sultan’s business accountant Animesh Chandra Saha withdrew Tk 83 lakh from a private bank in Uttara around 3 pm.

Of them, Tk 35 lakh was given to one Rajon, a representative of Sohel’s business partner Jafar Iqbal, in the bank, he said.

The robbery led by Sabuj was committed and the looted money was distributed among the robbers, Harun said.

The robbers used the money in paying house rent, buying gold for wives and gambling and also kept an amount for lawyers as fees to fight in court, the DB officer said, adding that efforts are on to recover the rest of the money.

Asked whether any member from the RAB was involved with the robbery gang, he said they found no one like that but a court mahuri, who joined the gang during dealing with a case, was found.

All the arrestees were robbers by profession and are accused in 10 to 15 cases including snatching, robbery, extortion and drugs in 13 districts including Dhaka, he added.