Initiative to bring Arav Khan back home mere eyewash

Initiative to bring back an accused in a police officer murder case, Rabiul Islam alias Arav Khan, from Dubai to Bangladesh remains mere eyewash for over five months. The police headquarters have been saying from March this year that they have been maintaining communication with Interpol to bring him back to the country.

Inspector general of police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun on Thursday said the process to bring Arav Khan back to Bangladesh is underway. The IGP said the same on 25 March.

Meanwhile, the court in May sentenced 10 years’ imprisonment to Arav in an arms case in absentia.

Arav is an accused in a case filed over the murder of police’s Special Branch inspector Mamun Emran Khan. Interpol has already issued red notice against Arav Khan who has been hiding in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He is the 63rd Bangladeshi to be included in the red notice of Interpol.

When Prothom Alo contacted IGP Abdullah Al-Mamun on Thursday night, he said, “The process to bring Arav Khan back to Bangladesh from Dubai is underway. Besides taking help of Interpol, police are using diplomatic channels too to bring him back in the country.” IGP hoped he would bring Arav Khan back to Bangladesh successfully.

Earlier, on 25 March, the IGP at a programme at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka said police are trying to bring Arav Khan, an accused in the case filed over the murder of police inspector Mamun Emran Khan.

Police inspector Mamun Emran Khan was killed at a flat in Banani in the capital on 8 July, 2018. His charred body was recovered from a forest in Gazipur on the next day. The deceased officer’s elder brother Jahangir Alam Khan filed a lawsuit with Banani police station in the capital. Later, Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s detective branch (DB) submitted charge sheet against absconding Rabiul Islam aka Arav Khan and nine others on 31 March, 2019.

According to police, Arav Khan fled to India after killing Mamun EMran Khan. He managed an Indian passport and went to Dubai from there as an Indian citizen. He inaugurated a gold shop, Arav Jewellers, in Dubai on 15 March.

The notice published on Interpol website mentioned Arav Khan’s name as Rabiul Islam and nationality as Bangladeshi. The notice is said to against him for murder. Arav Khan took the national identity card as 'Rabiul Islam'. His father's name is Matiur Rahman. He is now 35 years and seven month old. In the NID card, his permanent and present addresses are in Mollarhat upazila of Bagerhat. However, it has been learnt that the address given in the NID card is of his maternal uncle’s house.

Dhaka's special tribunal-14 sentenced Arav Khan to 10 years' imprisonment in an arms case. The court sources said he was arrested with arms on 28 January in 2015. Police filed a case with Ramna police station over the incident. The charge was framed against him in the case on 10 May that year. Rabiul secured bail from High Court on 24 June that year. The court sentenced him in absentia.

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is investigating the source of Arav Khan’s ill-gotten money home and abroad.

CID sources said money laundering branch of CID’s financial crime squad has already sent a letter to the UAE government seeking information on Arav Khan’s money and assets.

Basir Uddin, special police superintendent of CID’s financial squad, told Prothom Alo last night that data collection of Arav Khan’s wealth information in the country is almost complete. Amount of his total wealth will be available once the information is available from Dubai. Then information on Arav Khan’s laundered money will also be known.