Robbers in guise of RAB forcefully enter building, commit robbery, 6 arrested
A daring robbery took place on Wednesday morning at a six-story building in an alley near Viqarunnisa School on Road no. 8 in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.
A group of miscreants, identifying them as members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), overpowered and tied up security personnel before looting a jewelry shop and several business establishments within the building.
The robbers looted approximately Tk 3.5 million in cash along with gold ornaments. At one point, they also attacked the police.
The police managed to arrest four suspects from the scene: Farhad bin Mosharraf, 33, Yasin Hasan, 22, Mobasher Ahmed, 23, and Wakil Mahmud, 26.
Later, on Thursday, two more suspects, Abdullah, 32, and Sumon, 29, were apprehended. However, some members of the gang managed to escape after assaulting police officers.
According to law enforcement officials, three of the arrested individuals are university students.
A police officer stated that the suspects are active members of an organised gang that carries out robberies while impersonating members of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Three of the arrested individuals are students of a private university.
Police have seized several items used in the robbery, including two black jackets and three black caps with “RAB” inscribed on them, a microbus, five mobile phones, an iron chisel, and an old red sly wrench.
The incident of robbery was revealed at a press briefing at Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Media Center today.
Md Masud Alam, a Deputy Commissioner of Ramna Division police, said the building belongs to a person named MA Hannan Azad. He lives in a duplex flat on the fourth and fifth floors. He has a jewelry shop named ‘Alangkar Niketan’ in the building. The building has a business establishment named ‘SM Sourcing’ on the ground floor, second and third floors and office of a consultancy firm on the first.
The gang of robbers came in front of the building on three microbuses and a private car. The robbers identified them as RAB and asked the security guard to open the gate.
Police officer Masud Alam said some gang members wore RAB vests. As the security guard asked them to wait, the robbers scolded and even threatened to kill him if he did not open the gate. Some members of the gang broke into the gate and tied up the guard, caretaker and driver of the house. The robbers broke the gate of the office on the ground floor, beat up a peon and snatched Tk 45,100 from him. Later they entered the office of SM Sourcing being its employees and looted Tk 2.2 million and ransacked the office. Another team of robbers broke into the office on the fourth floor and looted Tk 1.3 million. Finally they broke the gate of MA Hannan Azad’s duplex flat, looted 2.5 bhoris of jewelry and Tk 150,000 in cash. The robbers also tried to forcibly pick him up.
Masud Alam said a petrol team of Dhanmondi police station rushed to the spot and rescued MA Hannan. The robbers at that time attacked the police, leaving some of them injured. Police arrested the members of the gang with the help of people around.
A case has been filed with Dhanmondi police station against eight arrested and absconded and 10-12 more unidentified criminals. Police arrested Abdullah and Sumon in a raid at Hazaribagh thana area this morning.