A career in crime worthy of cinema

Within the month of October, three branches of City Bank in Chattogram saw failed heist attempts. There were marks of attempted forced entry at the vaults of the banks, but no sign of the perpetrator, raising alarm among law enforcers and causing panic among bank authorities.

Detective Branch (DB) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police on Sunday claimed to have arrested the culprit, whose rap sheet looks straight out a Hollywood caper thriller.

Mohammed Mohiuddin Hasan, 31, was arrested with 1,412 yaba pills from Ispahani intersection of Lalkhan Bazar under Kotwali police, after 15-day frantic efforts in connection with abortive bank robberies.

Talking to The Daily Star, Inspector Eliash Khan of DB said, “Hasan stands accused in seven cases filed in Dhaka and Chattogram over abduction, drugs and attempted  bank robbery.”

Eliash Khan, inspector of Detective Branch of CMP detailed Hasan's colourful criminal career to The Daily Star yesterday, based on his confession.

According to police, three cases were filed with city's Double Mooring, Khulshi and the district's Raozan police stations on October 3, October 23 and October 27 respectively, over attempted bank robberies.

Eliash said carrying tools in a bag, Hasan would enter the bank's toilet after going there for account purposes, hide in the ceiling of the bathroom or inside the toilet and wait till the closure of the bank. “At night, he came out from the toilet and tried to break the vaults with the tools,” said Eliash, adding that Hasan failed to break the vaults but managed to escape each time.

He had also attempted the same tactic at the Agrabad branch of AB Bank on October 7, but security officials spotted him inside the toilet during closing hours. Hasan convinced them that he was hurt after a fall inside the restroom, and was let go by the guards.

“During investigation of three abortive bank robbery cases, police found the involvement of Hasan; he did all those things alone,” said Eliash.

HE KEPT GOING BACK TO A LIFE OF CRIME

Hasan, who worked as an Imam in a madrasa in Raozan in his early life,

went to Dubai to study finance at Dubai International Financial Centre, and lived there for seven years. He invested the majority of his income working as an imam in a mosque, but was duped by his business partner out of the money. He came back to Bangladesh broke, and was arrested and jailed by Panchlaish police in November 2016 over abduction of an expatriate's child for ransom.

Hasan then came to Dhaka and opened a clothing store by borrowing money, but was arrested with 300 yaba pills and served five months in jail. After that, he joined online grocery delivery service Chaldal in August 2017, embezzled Tk 3,22,000 from there and fled to Chattogram, police said.

GRUDGE ON CITY BANK

During interrogation, Hasan told police he has two bank accounts -- a foreign currency (FC) and a savings account -- at The City Bank.

Hasan claimed that 5,282 dollars from his FC account was debited from his account without his consent. Over the issue, Hasan first went to Agrabad Head Office, GEC branch and Raozan's Paterhat branch, but his issue was not resolved by bank authorities, he said.

This grudge prompted him to concoct the plan, police quoted Hasan as

confessing.

“To make money within a short time, he needed a large amount of dollars to invest in international currency markets, which led him to bank robbery idea,” said Eliash.