Employees of the courier service, SA Paribahan, at Zindabazar said one Amzad Hossain handed over the 7.5 feet by 2.5 feet trunk at 7:00pm for sending it to one Abdul Hai at Moulvibazar through parcel service.

When the courier service staff were preparing to load the trunk on a covered van at about 10:00pm, suddenly a man came out of it opening its cover. He 26-year-old identified himself as Abdul Hannan, a former employee of SA Paribahan, our Sylhet correspondent reports.

On information, police rushed to the courier service office and arrest the youth.

Hannan said he boarded a Sylhet-bound bus from Dhaka on Wednesday and became unconscious sometimes during the journey. When he regained his sense, he found himself inside the trunk, he told police.

SA Paribahan officials said Hannan was sacked for embezzling money two months back.

At about 1:30am, locals caught one Nurul Islam at Moulvibazar when he along with a rickshaw-van puller went to collect the container at the local SA Paribahan office. They were handed over to Moulvibazar police.

Officer-in-Charge of Moulvibazar Sadar Police Station Shalef Uddin Ahmed told The Daily Star last night that the arrestee during interrogation revealed their plan of stealing money and other valuables from the covered van.

Nurul said the container was made keeping enough space so that one can hide inside it and come out to steal goods and valuables being parcelled by the covered van. Hannan was assigned to do the task during its journey from Sylhet to Moulvibazar.

However, the courier authorities denied the story of Nurul and said it was a conspiracy of a 'vested quarters' against the owner of the company.

"They placed Hannan inside the trunk, who could have died of suffocation, to put the blame of his death on the courier service to take revenge of previous enmity," Abdus Salam, general manager of the courier, told The Daily Star night.