Arav Khan: Who helped him flee?

EditorialProthom Alo illustration

Bangladesh Police are now trying to bring Rabiul Islam alias Arav Khan, an accused in a case filed for murder of police official Imran, back to the country from Dubai with the help of Interpol. The law enforcement is also trying to issue a red notice against the accused. Some of the important questions regarding this are: why could the police not take any action when the accused was in the country? Who helped him flee the country? The most important question is why did the intelligence or any of the law enforcement agencies not know anything though the accused came to the country from Dubai twice?

Police’s Special Branch (SB) inspector Mamun Imran was killed in a flat in Banani in the capital on 7 July 2018. Rabiul Islam, one of the main accused in the murder case, fled to India and managed a fake India passport in the name of Arav Khan and travelled to Dubai with that. It is not that he went into hiding there. He was active in social media. Despite this, how could a murder accused remain outside of the radar of the police? This is truly astonishing. The matter came to spotlight when several stars of Bangladesh’s spots and entertainment industry went to Dubai to attend an inauguration programme of Arav Khan’s jewellery outlet.

Police filed a charge sheet against Rahmat Ullah, Rabiul Islam and eight others in the Mamun murder case on 31 March 2019. Rabiul persuaded a youth from Chandpur, Abu Yusuf, to surrender before the court in his stead. In exchange Rabiul would pay Abu Yusuf money every month. But Abu Yusuf revealed the truth after serving in the jail for nine months.

Quoting sources involved with the investigation, a Prothom Alo report revealed dangerous information. Detective Branch (DB) of police detained Rabiul in connection with the Mamun murder case that time. But after three days, he was released instead of being showed as arrested. The allegation is that Rabiul was released at the request of a then influential senior leader of the ruling party and an additional inspector general of police. Certainly this incident highlights the whims and collective failure of Bangladesh’s politics, administration, and law enforcement.

Law enforcement was supposed to work following laws. They cannot release any accused at the request or order of anyone. Sadly this is what happened in case of the murder of police official Mamun. Now it is the responsibility of the government to identify the senior leader and the police official and bring them to book.

This was not the first incident of a murder accused leaving the country. But the Arav Khan incident has trumped all the past incidents. Actually, his fleeing has raised questions regarding the capacity of the law enforcement. Resolving the mystery around Arav Khan is a must to save the image of the government and the law enforcement.

This is clear that Rabiul alone could not have done this without the “blessings” of some powerful quarters. Proper investigation is necessary to find out the people who helped murder accused Rabiul flee the country and take a new identity, namely Arav Khan.

At the same time, all measures must be taken to bring Arav Khan to home from Dubai. It would be tough to bring the perpetrators to book if it is not possible to bring Arav back to the country. Questions have also been raised as to how Arav Khan became so wealthy. The investigation must pay special attention to find out whether Rabiul was used to launder the money any Bangladeshi earned illegally at home, to Dubai.