Premeditated carjacking bid gone awry: police
The murder of a ridesharing car driver in the capital’s Uttara last month was carried out by professional carjackers, detectives claimed yesterday.
In a press conference at Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) media centre, Abdul Baten, additional commissioner of Detective Branch of DMP, said three youths had premeditated to hijack specifically a car of Toyota Allion model, but fled the scene after killing the driver as the circumstances were not in their favour.
The development comes after the arrest of three suspects allegedly involved with the murder of the driver -- Arman Hossain, 40, who was found slit-throat in the driver’s seat of a car on June 14.
The arrestees -- Sejan, 24, Sharif, 19, and Sajib, 20, were held from different parts of the country with two switchblades in their possession, said Moshiur Rahman, deputy commissioner of DB (north).
The trio have been put on two-day remand each by a Dhaka court.
“A friend of Sejan’s in Khulna, who allegedly runs a stolen car business, wanted a Toyota Allion car and offered Tk 8 lakh to Sejan, prompting his plan to hijack a car,” said Moshiur.
Sejan with his two associates bought two switchblades from New Market on June 13. That night, they sent out a ride-hailing request from Rampura to Uttara on Uber, and kept on cancelling and asking for new rides five times, until driver of an Allion car responded, he added.
“They asked Arman to stop the car in a dark and secluded place at Uttara sector-14, got out of the vehicle and kept the driver waiting for about 20 minutes to pay his fare. At 12:37am, they went back into the car and Sharif, who was sitting behind the driver’s seat, slit Arman’s throat when Sejan signalled,” Baten said.
A CCTV footage from a nearby building also confirmed the scene, he said.
After his throat was swiped, the driver started the car but failed to control it and crashed it on the roadside, prompting the trio to escape without taking the car, Moshiur Rahman told The Daily Star over phone.
Police said all three have admitted to their involvement in the murder. Now they are investigating who wanted the car and for what purpose, the DB official added.
Hailing from Ishwardi of Pabna, driver Arman lived in a rented house at Pallabi with his family. He had been providing ride-sharing services with a rented car for around a year.
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