Stolen from Dhaka, recovered in Gaibandha

On February 28 around 7:50pm, Divisional Special Judge of Barishal of Mohsinul Haque hired a rickshaw from a programme at Kakrail to his residence on Dilu Road.

It was a 20-minute journey, and it almost ended smoothly if the rickshaw-puller didn't create some last-minute chaos by demanding extra fare.

Amidst the back and forth, Mohsinul forgot to pick up his backpack, which  had a laptop, DSLR camera, a cellphone, and some important documents. It took him a little while to realise his mistake, but by then the rickshaw-puller had already disappeared.

He immediately filed a general diary with Hatirjheel Police Station. In a moment's notice, police  formed two separate teams to recover the backpack.

The teams, led by Sub-inspector Khairul Islam and Assistant  Sub-inspector Tariqul Islam, soon set out looking for the rickshaw-puller.

After 72 hours and over 100 CCTV footage checks, the DMP officials managed to recover the items, unscratched.

The drive was extensive and stretched across district boundaries. It led the teams all the way to Gaibandha, Biplob Bijoy Talukder, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon Division police, told The Daily Star yesterday.

"We are now looking for the thieves. Although they left the loot behind, they managed to evade arrest," he added.

Police checked the CCTV footage to  first identify the rickshaw-puller. Mohsinul assisted the police by collecting footage from different places, said police.

After identifying the puller, police started inquiring about his garage and location by going through even more footage, police said. After some effort, they were able to pin down the garage. Police set out for the location but found that the rickshaw-puller was not there.

However, as one stream dried, another started flowing. Trying to connect to Mohsinul's cellphone, police found it active, running on another SIM. The person on the opposite side told police the backpack is all the way in Gaibandha.

After a round of location tracing, police finally recovered the backpack from a third-party possession. Safe and sound the stolen items will be handed over to Mohsinul tomorrow after some documentation work, police officials said.