The Rapid Action Battalion on Sunday arrested eight robbery suspects, including five sacked military personnel, while the detective branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested three suspects over looting an apartment in the capital鈥檚 Mohammadpur area early Saturday.
A group of 25 or 30 people in Army and RAB uniforms looted Tk 75.50 lakh in cash, 70 bhoris of gold, two iPhones, and one android mobile phone on a third-floor apartment of a five-storey building in the Swapnanir Housing area of Mohammadpur from about 3:30am to about 4:10am, the police said, referring to the statement of the case lodged with Mohammadpur police station.
The robbers, identifying themselves as members of law enforcement agencies, stormed into the house in the name of recovering illegal arms at a time when the聽 government had been conducting joint drives across Bangladesh to recover illegal arms and bring drug peddlers to book. The joint drives began on September 4.
RAB media and legal wing director lieutenant colonel Munim Ferdous said, 鈥榃e have arrested eight people. Of them, five are sacked members of different armed forces, and the remaining three people are civilians. We have also seized the microbus used in the robbery, a ring, a chain, and Tk 7 lakh in cash from them.鈥�
DMP deputy commissioner for media, Muhammad Talebur Rahman, said that DB arrested three suspects and seized Tk 2.20 lakh in cash, four bhoris of gold and two iPhones from them.
The three suspects are Shariful Islam Tushar, 35, Zakir Hossain, 37, and Md Masudur Rahman, 47.聽聽
Talebur and Munim said that they were unable to tell anything about the way the robbery suspects got the uniforms they used during the robbery.
The officials said that they were investigating the case to find answers to all the questions.
Victim businessman Abu Bakar鈥檚 son Md Asif Hossain Milon alleged that he made a phone call to 999, the National Emergency Service helpline, seeking help at about 3:45am, and the police reached the spot after the robbers had fled the scene. 聽
He said that the robbers could be caught red-handed if the police could respond immediately and rush to their house.
鈥楾here might be the duty officer鈥檚 negligence,鈥� he said. 聽
The victim said that his son was outside the home and came to know about the incident from his sister over the telephone.
He said that police reached the spot about 15 to 20 minutes after the robbers had left the place.
Mohammadpur police station officer-in-charge Iftekhar Hasan, however, said that the affected family made the phone call after the robbers had left the house at about 4:10am.
He said that a police patrol team reached the spot about 15-20 minutes after fleeing the robbers.
Victim Abu Bakar filed a case with Mohammadpur police station Saturday night accusing 25 to 30 unidentified people over the incident.
Suspects came to loot the house by four microbuses, one private car and a truck, according to the victim and the police.
The house鈥檚 security guard Md Jamshed said that a group of men in army and RAB uniforms knocked at the gate when he was sleeping.
鈥楾hey [robbery suspects] asked me to open the gate. When I refused to do so, they told me that they would enter into the house by breaking open the gate,鈥� said Jamshed.
He said that 14 or 15 people stormed into the house and asked him to show the apartment of building owner Abu Bakar on the third floor.
He said that he had shown the 鈥榓rmy and RAB personnel鈥� the apartment of the building owner.
Abu Bakar said that the robbers, identifying themselves as members of the Army and the RAB, asked him to open the gate to cooperate with them in recovering illegal firearms.
鈥業 opened the gate and they did not allow us to contact anyone. There was neither firearm nor ammunition in my house. I had a licensed firearm and I submitted it to the police station when the interim government asked us to submit it. My arm鈥檚 license was taken in 2001,鈥� Abu Bakar said.
The victim said that the robbers broke the lock of a cupboard and took Tk 12 lakh and 70 bhoris of gold and later entered his office, next to the apartment where he lives in.
鈥楾hey tried to break the lock. I asked them not to break the door and I gave the key to them. They took Tk 38.50 lakh and Tk 25 lakh from two lockers in my office,鈥� he said and added that the robbers had broken five CCTV cameras and took one hard disc.
A police official at DMP鈥檚 Tejgaon Zone said that although the robbers took away one hard disc, the police had seized two other hard discs.
Businessman Abu Bakar owns four brick kilns and runs coal, sand and housing business.