law-order
13 fugitives arrested in Benapole
Police on Saturday claimed to have arrested thirteen fugitives wanted in drugs, arms and murder cases in Benapole.However, police didn't disclose the identities of the arrestees.Acting on a tip-off, a team of police conducted simultaneous drives in different areas of Benapole Port area all day on Saturday and arrested them, said Kamal Hossain Bhuiyan, OC of Benapole Port Police Station.
Read: 54 arrested at Benapole borderThe arrestees were produced before the court in Jashore under police protection, added the OC.
Girl from Netrakona gang-raped inside bogie at Kamalapur station
Police arrested five youths on charge of gang-raping a 17-year-female girl inside a bogie of an inter-district train stationed in the city's Kamalapur railway station early Saturday.Of the arrestees, two have given confessional statement about their involvement in the gang rape before a Dhaka court, police says. However, another perpetrator known as Imran has been absconding since the incident.The arrestees were identified as Nazmul, 25, Anwar, 20, Naim, 25, Sumon, 21, and Ruman alias Kalu,22.
Read: Young girl gang raped in ChattogramQuoting the 17-year old female juvenile, police said the victim hailing from a village of Netrokona reached Kamalapur police station by an inter-district train at around 8:30 pm on Friday night.She came to Dhaka leaving her village home after a quarrel with her parents, said OC of Kamalapur railway police station Ferdous Ahmed.As she had no specific destination, she was waiting at Platform no-2. Absconding Imran struck up a conversation with her and asked her to stay inside the bogie at Platform No-1 saying that it will be safe for her.Later at around 12:30 am, Imran along with 4-5 others went to the bogie and raped her forcibly. When a railway security guard was passing near the bogie, the perpetrators fled the scene in fear.The security guard rescued the girl and handed her over to Kamalapur railway police in the morning. Later, the police arrested the five youths from the station area identified by the victim.A victim filed a case with Kamalapur railway police station.
Police produced the arrested five youths before a Dhaka Court on Saturday afternoon. Of them, two - Naim and Sumon - gave confessional statements on their involvement in the gang rape incident, said the OC. All of the accused were sent to jail, while police are still hunting for absconder Imran.
3 arrested with arms, ammo in Rajshahi planned to create 'anarchy' ahead of polls
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) claimed to have arrested three people and recovered four foreign revolvers, three foreign pistols and a huge amount of ammunitions from Kapashia Pahara area in Rajshahi city on Friday.
The arrestees are identified as Md Atikur Rahman alias Atik, 35, son of Md Abdul Matin of Kapashia Parharpur, his cohorts Md Shaheen Ali, 25, son of Md Jhandu Mia of Charkajla and Md Shahidul Islam, 26, son of Md Nekchhar Ai of Dharampur Purbopara in the city respectively.
Lieutenant Colonel Riaz Shahriar, commandant of the Rab-5, disclosed this information at a press conference in the Rab office of the city.
Read: Arms, ammo recovered from Rajshahi border
He said on information a team of the elite force conducted a drive at house of Atik and recovered four foreign revolvers, three foreign pistols, four magazines, eight rounds of bullet, 1.1 kilogram of gunpowder, 750 gram of stone used in making bomb and cocktail, other ammunitions, two mobile phone sets and four SIM cards.
With information revealed from Atik, the elite force also arrested Shaheen and Shahidul from separate places in the city, he said.
“The arrestees informed us that Rajshahi University’s students Tanjim, 27, and Md Abdur Rahim, 28, supplied the arms to them after collecting from an unknown place on Indian border,” he said.
The varsity’s students are members of an anti-liberation force and their main target is to destabilise stability of the country, he said adding that drives are on to nab them.
Replying to a question, the Rab officer said they had information the arrestees gathered the arms and ammunitions to create anarchy in Rajshahi as well as the country ahead of the next parliament elections.
Embezzling Tk 3 cr to send people abroad: 2 traffickers held in city
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) said on Friday they arrested two suspected members of a human trafficking gang, who embezzled around Tk 3 crore from people in the name of sending them abroad, from the city’ Shantinagar area.
The arrestees were identified as Mahbubul Hasan, 50, and Mahmud Karim, 36.
Tipped off, a team of Rab-3 made the arrest after conducting a drive in Shantinagar on Thursday night, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Farzana Haque, staff officer (Media).
During primary interrogation, arrestee Mahbubul confessed that the gang used to fraud poor and unemployed people with promise of high-paying jobs in Europe and Middle Eastern countries by showing fake appointment letters and other documents of foreign companies. They 9 trafficked many others since 2000.
The gang collected 521 passports through brokers in various parts of Bangladesh in the last two years. They also took Tk 2-3 lakh to send each person to the Middle East and Tk 6-7 lakh to Europe, said the officer.
But they failed to send anyone abroad and to submit passports to any travel agency to start the process. They also failed to return the money to the victims.
However, the gang had sent some people abroad earlier alluring with high-paying jobs who were confined by the gang's foreign counterparts and tortured for ransom instead of getting jobs there, said ASP Farzana.
Legal steps are underway against the arrestees, she added.
DB seizes 20 microbuses after arrest of UP chairman at centre of sham car dealership
Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch (DB) has seized 20 microbuses from across Bangladesh following the arrest of a union parishad chairman of Cumilla, held for swindling a string of car customers out of crores of taka.
Zakir Hossain, chairman of Manikachar union parishad of Cumilla, was arrested on September 21 from the district. DB seized the vehicles acting on the information provided by Zakir, DMP Additional Commissioner (DB) Md Haroon Or Rasheed told the media Thursday.
During interrogation, Zakir admitted a massive fraud involving cars. He "sold" many cars that he never delivered.
Zakir told police that he conned around 600-700 people, including businessmen, government officials and lawmakers, using 60-70 vehicles. For example, he "sold" a single microbus with the same registration number to 37 people.
First, two microbuses were seized from Zakir's possession, the DB chief said.
Later, based on the information given by him during interrogation, DB (Tejgaon Division) seized 20 more microbuses from different parts of the country, Haroon Or Rasheed added.
The UP chairman would cheat people with the help of 5-6 accomplices. He embezzled crores of taka and has 27 bank accounts in the name of his company "RK Motors" and his relatives.
There are as many as 12 cases against him at different police stations.
"DB (Tejgaon Division) started an investigation along with local police after a fraud case was filed against Zakir at Mughda Police Station on September 7," the DB chief said.
RU professor murder: Chamber judge stays execution of death row convict
The Appellate Division Chamber Judge has stayed the execution of a death row convict in Rajshahi University Professor S Taher Ahmed murder case.
The death row convict is Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin, former associate professor of Rajshahi University’s Geology and Mining department.
Chamber judge Borhan Uddin passed the order on Tuesday following the convict’s review petition seeking reconsideration of the judgment given by the Appellate Division upholding the death sentence.
The court also fixed November 17 for hearing of the review petition in the regular bench of the Appellate Division.
Now Mohiuddin's death sentence will remain suspended until this period, said convict’s counsel Lawyer SM Shahjahan.
Additional Attorney General Sheikh Mohammad Morshed and Assistant Attorney General M Saiful Alam represented the state.
Meanwhile, two separate review petitions were filed by another death row convict Md Jahangir Alam, caretaker of Professor S. Taher’s residence, and lifer Abdus Salam, relatives of caretaker Jahangir Alam, which will be presented at the Chamber court soon.
On April 5, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s death sentence of two convicts, including Mohiuddin, and life imprisonment of two others in the murder case.
A bench of six justices, led by Chief justice Hasan Foez Siddique, passed the order, rejecting the appeal of the defence in this case.
The other death row convict of the case is Md Jahangir Alam while the two lifers are Nazmul Alam and Abdus Salam, relatives of caretaker Jahangir Alam.
Prof Taher’s body was recovered from a drain near his residence, two days after he went missing on February 1, 2006.
On February 3, a murder case was filed at Motihar police station in Rajshahi, following a complaint lodged by his son Sanzid.
A Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal on May 22, 2008, sentenced to death the four accused.
The tribunal also acquitted two persons, including former RU Chhatra Shibir president Mahbubul Alam Salehi.
Later on May 13, 2013, the High Court upheld the death penalty of Mohiuddin and Jahangir, but sentenced Salam and Nazmul to imprisonment until death.
After the order, the convicts moved the apex court.
30 gold bars recovered from airport dustbin
A preventive team of customs house recovered 30 gold bars weighing around 3.48 kg in an abandoned from a dustbin at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Thursday.
Sources at the airport said officials of the team spotted an object in abandoned condition in a dustbin kept near Bay No. 12 of the airport at around 9:30 am.
Later, 30 gold bars worth Tk 3.50 crore were recovered from it, said customs official Nafis Amin Rizvi.
4 youths, among 7 arrested, members of new militant group: Rab
Four youths, among the seven arrested, had left their homes to join the newly formed militant group ‘Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya’, Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of Rab’s Legal and Media Wing, has said.
Some leaders and activists of banned militant groups including Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Ansar Al Islam, and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) formed the new group, he said.
Read:Rab arrests 7 including 4 with suspected ties to radical groups
The Rab official disclosed the information at a media briefing on Thursday in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar over the arrest of seven people, including four who went missing from their homes in Cumilla and elsewhere with suspected ties to radical groups.
The arrestees were identified as: Hossain Ahmed, 33, son of Maulana Abu Taher, Nesar Uddin alias Umayer, 34, son of Matier Rahman, Bani Amin, 27, son of Delwar Hossain, and Md Sabit, 19, son of Hasan Mir — all from Patuakhali district; Imtiaz Ahmed Rifat, 19, son of Foyez Ahmed, and Hasibul Islam, 20, son of Shahab Uddin from Cumilla; and Roman Shikdar, 24, son of Anis Shikdar of Gopalganj.
Tipped off, a team of Rab-11 conducted separate drives in Munshiganj, Narayanganj and Mymensingh districts and arrested them.
The elite force also seized some leaflets, books on radical views and a tab from the arrestees, said Commander Khandaker Al Moin said.
According to arrestee Hossain Ahmed’s statement, who used to teach at a madrasa in Patuakhali, the activities of this new militant group started in 2017 – by merging some members from various banned militant outfits, said the Rab official.
“In 2019, ‘Jamatul Ansar fil Hindal Sharqiya’ (Jamatul Ansar of Eastern Hind) was formed. Some leaders and activists of banned militant groups of Bangladesh including Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Ansar Al Islam and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), joined in to start the activities of this new militant group,” he added.
Hossain was in charge of recruiting and supervising members for this new militant outfit.
Based on Bani Amin’s information, Rab arrested Nesar from Dhaka-Mymensingh highway area. Nesar was a scientific officer in a government institution in Bhola and got involved in militant activities before 2019.
Read: 7 young men missing from Cumilla since Aug 23
Hossain, Rifat, Hasib, Roman, and Sabit were arrested from Siddhirganj area of Narayanganj following Nesar’s information, said the Rab Commander.
During primary interrogation, the arrestees revealed that Hasib and Rifat came to know about the organisation from Habibullah, imam of Koba Mosque in Cumilla, a year ago. Later, Habibullah inspired them to get involved in extremist activities.
Rifat was a first year honours student of Economics in Cumilla and Hasib was a higher secondary student there. They went missing on August 23.
Commander Moin said Roman got involved in extremism and remained missing for the last 40 days while Sabit disappeared from Patuakhali two months ago.
“Among the eight young men who had gone missing from Cumilla, Sartaz Islam Niloy, 22, returned to his Kalyanpur home on September 1 and later Rab took him into custody. Following interrogation, Rab came to know details on others,” he said.
They were trained in char areas in Bhola and Patuakhali districts and so far, 15-20 people have joined the new group, said Moin.
Seven students, aged 17-25, belonging to different institutions in Cumilla have been missing since August 23. They all knew each other, and left home without their mobile phones. A general diary was lodged with Kotwali Model Police in this regard.
After that, reports came to light of seven more youths missing from Patuakhali, Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gopalganj for two to three months under similar circumstances.
Besides, four youths from Sylhet have been missing since 15 November last year.
Rab arrests 7 including 4 with suspected ties to radical groups
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) has arrested seven people, including four who went missing from their homes in Cumilla and elsewhere with suspected ties to radical groups, during raids in and around Dhaka.
The arrestees were identified as: Hossain Ahmed, 33, son of Maulana Abu Taher, Nesar Uddin alias Umayer, 34, son of Matier Rahman, Bani Amin, 27, son of Delwar Hossain, and Md Sabit, 19, son of Hasan Mir — all from Patuakhali district; Imtiaz Ahmed rifat, 19, son of Foyez Ahmed, and Hasibul Islam, 20, son of Shahab Uddin from Cumilla; and Roman Shikdar, 24, son of Anis Shikdar of Gopalganj.
Tipped off, a team of Rab-11 conducted separate drives in Munshiganj, Narayanganj and Mymensingh districts and arrested them.
Also read: 7 young men missing from Cumilla since Aug 23
The elite force also seized some leaflets, books on radical views and a tab from the arrestees, said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of Rab’s legal and Media Wing, while briefing reporters in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar.
“Among the eight young men missing from Cumilla, Sartaz Islam Niloy, 22, returned to his Kalyanpur home on Septmeber 1 and later Rab took him into custody. Following interrogation, Rab came to know details on others,” he said.
“Four students left their homes to join the new militant group ‘Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharkia’, formed by banned militant groups Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Ansar Al Islam and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B),” he added.
They were trained in char areas in Bhola and Patuakhali districts and so far 15-20 people have joined the new group, said Moin.
Seven students, aged 17-25, belonging to different institutions in Cumilla have been missing since August 23. They all knew each other, and left home without their mobile phones. A general diary was lodged with Kotwali Model Police in this regard.
After that, reports came to light of seven more youths missing from Patuakhali, Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gopalganj for two to three months under similar circumstances.
Besides, four youths from Sylhet have been missing since 15 November last year.
Rajbari Mohila Dal member arrested under DSA for 'comment on PM'
Police early Wednesday arrested a Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal member of Rajbari district unit in a case filed under Digital Security Act (DSA) for making insulting comment on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Facebook recently.
The arrestee was identified as Sonia Akter Sriti, 35, member of the district unit Mohila Dal and wife of Saudi Arabia expatriate Khokan of district town. She was also founding president of Rajbari Blood Donors Club.
She was sent to jail through a Rajbari court in the DSA case on Wednesday noon, Mohammad Shahadat Hossain, officer-in-charge (OC) of Rajbari Sadar police station, said, adding that they arrested her from Nazi Bari in No 3 Borodanga area on early Wednesday.
Arefin Chowdhury, member secretary of district Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote, lodged an FIR against her for hurting minds of people on October 3. The FIR was turned into a DSA case on Wednesday.
According to the FIR, the plaintiff said the accused BNP activist made insulting remarks about PM Sheikh Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League, from her personal Facebook account in two separate statuses on August 31 and September 28.
“In the statuses Sriti wrote Sheikh Hasina threw abusive words to their leader Khaleda Zia, also prime minister of three times, while delivering speech,” according to the statement.
“No sound word comes out of her (premier) mouth,” it said Sriti wrote in the posts.
OC Shahadat said they arrested Sriti for spreading rumours and making objectionable remarks about the premier after the FIR was filed in connection with the matter.
Ali Newaz Mahmud Khaiyam, former district BNP president and lawmaker from the sadar constituency, said Sriti was accused in a false case by people jealous of her popularity in society for voluntary works.
Condemning the incident, he demanded withdrawal of the case immediately.