6 muggers arrested, Tk 19 lakh recovered

Detective Branch (DB) police arrested six people, including acting general manager of Sundarban Courier Service, from Dhaka and Benapole, on charge of looting Tk 20 lakh from an official of the courier service on Friday.

The detectives of Dhaka Metropolitan Police also recovered Tk 19 lakh, three firearms with 14 rounds of bullet and two motorbikes from their possessions.

Tofael Ahmed, chief accountant of Sundarban Courier Service Uttara branch, was going to its Kalyanpur branch from Uttra sector-3 office at about 8:40 pm on June 16.

When he got into a covered van with Tk 20 lakh keeping inside a bag, five dacoits swooped on him and snatched the bag containing the money. Then the gangsters fled the scene riding on two motorcycles. A case was filed with Uttara police station in this connection the following day.

DB police alongside uttara thana police while investigating the case came to know that a section of employees of the courier service have been misappropriating money hiring dacoits from Khulna and Jessore for a long time.

Acting on a tip-off, the detectives conducted simultaneous drives in Dhaka city and Jessore on Friday.

They arrested Rezaul Karim Reza, acting general manager of Sundarban Courier Service, and driver Anisur Rahman Lenin from Kalyanpur and Shahbuddin, Minto and Sawkat Ali from Benapole in Jessore. Earlier, they arrested Rukunuzzaman Shaon from Uttara area.

Acting on their confessional statements, the DB police recovered three pistols along with 14 rounds of bullet from Minto’s house and Tk 19 lakh from Shahbuddin’s house. Besides, they also recovered two motorcycles, which were used in Dhaka for the dacoity in Uttara, from Sawkat’s home.

During preliminary interrogations, the arrestees also revealed that they were involved in dacoities of Tk 5.5 lakh in Benapole in 2010, Tk 6 lakh in Central Road of Jessore in 2011 and Tk 10 lakh in Khulna on January 31 this year.