Akbar’s arrest a ‘cross-border’ effort: police
With speculations and rumours running rife on social media as to who actually detained suspended sub-inspector Akbar Hossain Bhuiyan from near the border area, Sylhet district police have said it took a "cross-border operation" to arrest him.
On Monday morning, Akbar, the prime suspect in the killing of Rayhan Ahmed in police custody in Sylhet, was detained along Bangladesh-India border in Dona area of the district's Kanaighat upazila.
Sylhet district police officially said Akbar was arrested by them at the border, with the help of some "trusted friends".
However, several videos went viral on social media the same day where it appeared that Akbar was detained by the people of the Khasi community in India's Meghalaya before he was handed over to a Bangladeshi citizen in Kanaighat.
Law enforcers were criticised for their claims.
After the arrest, Mohammad Farid Uddin, superintendent of police in Sylhet, without specifying much said Akbar was detained under direct supervision of police and some trusted friends helped them catch him.
However, while talking to this correspondent, many officials of the Sylhet district police said it was a joint operation of the law enforcers and locals from both the countries that eventually made the arrest possible.
HOW AKBAR WAS ARRESTED
A day after Rayhan's death, Akbar fled from Bandarbazar police outpost and two days later, he crossed the Bangladesh-India border in Bholaganj area of Companiganj upazila in Sylhet, said police sources.
At Meghalaya, he took shelter at one Naresh Singha's house for a couple of days and then on October 18, he moved to one Gopal Das' house at Silchar of Assam. Gopal is a relative of one Panna, who is a friend of Naresh.
Through a source, police found out that Akbar is at Gopal's house. They contacted Gopal through the source and cut a deal with him -- Gopal will hand over Akbar to Bangladesh police in exchange of 10 lakh rupees.
Gopal agreed.
As per the agreement, Gopal brought Akbar to Meghalaya's Dona bordering area and handed him over to Khasi people, who were there working with Bangladesh police.
The money was also given to Gopal via the Khasi people. They then brought Akbar to the bordering area of Kanaighat upazila.
There, one Rahim Uddin, a resident of Kanaighat, and some locals crossed the border on behalf of the law enforcers and received Akbar from Khasi people.
They then handed him over to the district police around 9am on Monday.
According to the officials of Sylhet district police, the Khasi people made several videos of Akbar while quizzing him. They did not know these videos would cause such issues afterwards, police added.
The officials also said Rahim later claimed to have found Akbar using his own connections just to get reward for detaining him as declared by some expatriates.
"Tracking down Akbar in India and then bringing him back to Bangladesh involved a joint effort of police and many trusted friends in both the countries," SP Farid Uddin told The Daily Star.
"It was Sylhet district police's operation from the very beginning… but we are not discrediting anyone who helped us detain Akbar. We are grateful to all of them," he said.
An official said Sylhet district police paid the money to Gopal, while Rahim and some others involved also got small monetary rewards.
On October 11, Rayhan, a 33-year-old resident of Akhalia Neharipara area in Sylhet city, was allegedly detained and tortured by police.
He died at Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital at 7:50am. His wife filed a case with Kotwali Police Station accusing several unnamed people the next day.
On October 12, Sylhet Metropolitan Police suspended four personnel including SI Akbar, who was the in-charge of a police outpost.
On October 13, PBI was tasked with the case's investigation.
Including Akbar, a sub-inspector, an assistant SI and two constables have been arrested in the case so far.
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