Steps being taken to cancel Arav’s Indian passport

Rabiul Islam alias Arav Khan in Dubai
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A letter will be sent to the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh requesting the authorities of the country to cancel the fake Indian passport of Rabiul Islam alias Arav Khan, an accused in a case filed for the murder of a police official. Accused Rabiul Islam is currently staying in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with the fake passport.

Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police has sent the letter to the home ministry as part of the law enforcement’s attempt to bring him back to Bangladesh, said a source. The letter will be sent to the Indian High Commission from the ministry.

Speaking to Prothom Alo about this on Wednesday, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said, “It is not possible to bring Arav back. He has not gone to Dubai using Bangladeshi passport. There is no way but to request India to bring him back.”

Rabiul Islam, who has come to be known as gold trader Arav Khan in Dubai, is actually an accused in the case filed for the murder of police’s Special Branch (SB) inspector Mamun Imran Khan. Mamun was killed on 8 July 2018. The law enforcement recovered Mamun's charred body from a forest in Gazipur the next day.

The murdered SB inspector’s elder brother Jahangir Alam Khan filed a murder case with Banani police station in the capital in this connection. Upon investigation, DB police filed a charge sheet against absconding Rabiul Islam alias Arav Khan and nine others in the case on 31 March, 2019. The trial is currently underway at the court of first additional metropolitan sessions judge court in Dhaka.

Sources said the DB letter requested to cancel the Indian passport issued for Arav Khan mentioning that actually he is a Bangladesh citizen by birth; his real name is Rabiul Islam. Currently he has been staying in Dubai with the Indian passport.

The letter also mentioned his Bangladeshi passport number, name of his parents, and his two permanent addresses in Gopalganj and Bagerhat districts. It also explained in detail about the murder police official Mamun, saying that this criminal not only killed the police inspector, but also tried to destroy the evidence to avoid any trial. The DB and SB departments indicted 10 after investigating the murder. All the 10 are accused of murder and destroying evidence. The court has issued arrest warrants against ‘Arav Khan’ in few more cases, the letter added.

The DB letter further said accused Rabiul Islam somehow managed an Indian passport in the name of Arav Khan hiding his actual identity and avoided the trial. He travelled to the UAE with that passport.

In this context, the DB letter requested to cancel Arav Khan’s Indian passport as soon as possible. A 22-page attachment has also been sent with the letter.

Arav Khan is known as a gold trader in Dubai. He inaugurated his gold outlet ‘Arav Jewellers’ at New Gold Souk centre in Dubai on 15 March. A number of stars from Bangladesh’s sports and entertainment industries joined the inauguration programme. Since then Arav Khan and his criminal past came to limelight.