One of the arrestees is Govinda Chandra Karmakar, 30, the youngest brother of the jeweller Sukumar Karmakar. Rab also seized 13 tolas of looted gold ornaments from his possession.

Other arrestees were identified as Abul Kalam, a sacked Havilder of Bangladesh Army, Moazzem Hossain, Shafiqul Islam alias Shafique, Sumon Mollah, Abul Hasan, Iran Khan alias Hira Mian and Mohon Joarder.

The robbery was a much talked about issue as the jeweller's family blamed the elite force for the incident since the robbers were wearing Rab uniforms.

The robbers identified themselves as Rab members and entered the house of Sukumar Karmakar telling the family members that they would search the house.

"Our teams are working to arrest other members of the gang and recover the other looted ornaments," Commanding Officer of Rab-2 M Akbar Ali told newsmen at a briefing at his office in the city yesterday.

He said the gang sold 43 tolas of the looted gold ornaments to a jewellery shop at Baitul Mukarram. However, Rab could not yet recover the ornaments as the shop is shut down and the owner is abroad.

Govinda Chandra Karmakar told newsmen at the Rab-2 office that he helped the gang commit the robbery after he was offered Tk 40000.