Tk 20 lakh spent in 21 days!

A thief, his wife and two associates took part in the burglary and looted Tk 80 lakh from a vehicle of the National Bank in Old Dhaka on May 10.

The Detective Branch (DB) of police came up with the findings yesterday after arresting the four. A police team also recovered Tk 60 lakh from them, DB Joint Commissioner Mahbubul Alam told The Daily Star.

Police said the thief allegedly spent the rest of the money in just 21-day on drugs, lawyer fees and donations in different mazars.

The arrestees were identified as Hannan alias Briefcase Hannan alias Robin alias Rafiqul Islam; his wife Parveen; associates Mostafa and Babul Mia.

"We have learnt that Hannan, the ringleader, is wanted in around 30 cases," said Saifur Rahman Azad, additional deputy commissioner of DB police, yesterday.

On information, police arrested the four from different areas of Dhaka, Kishoreganj and Shariatpur and recovered the money from a rented house of Hannan in the capital's Dholaipar area, he said.

DB police also seized two firearms and bullets from Hannan and Mostafa's possessions. A Dhaka Court later placed the arrestees on a three-day remand for interrogation, he said.

Earlier, the DB joint commissioner revealed the information of the arrest at a midday press briefing at his Minto Road office. He said they made the arrest after analysing data and CCTV footage.

On May 10, a bag containing approximately Tk 80 lakh allegedly went missing from a vehicle of National Bank during money collection from the bank's Old Dhaka branch.

The incident took place in Babubazar area, according to a first information report filed by Habibur Rahman, vice president of the bank's Dilkusha Branch.

Habibur registered the case with Kotwali Police Station on the same day against unnamed people.

The cash collecting vehicle of the bank's head office was making rounds across different branches in Old Dhaka, according to police.

After collecting the money, as the vehicle was about to return to its head office, the security guard noticed that a bag was missing. Checking the register, they found the bag was picked up from National Bank's Bangla Bazar branch and there was Tk 80 lakh inside it.

Police initially arrested four persons -- the bank officer Jahangir Alam Don, vehicle driver Abdul Latif and two security guards Shaha Alam and Younus Ali. Following a one day remand, the arrestees were sent to jail on May 14.

Asked about these four, ADC Saifur Rahman said they primarily suspected that the bank staff embezzled the money as they failed to give any clue and the staff came to know about the missing money after driving the vehicle from one branch to another.

"We would drop their names from the charge sheet and they can also apply for bail as we did not find these bank staff's involvement in the incident," he said.

Asked how the money was looted, ADC Saifur said Hannan and his associates were mainly members of a mugging group.

When the bank executive officer and security guard went to the Bangla Bazar branch to collect money parking the vehicle in front of the branch, Hannan and his associates started chit chatting with the microbus driver and security guard, he said.

As the officer was delaying, the driver went upstairs to check, leaving the security guard alone, he said.

At that time, Hannan kept the guard busy while his associate opened the gate of the vehicle and took a money sack and fled, said Saifur, adding that Hannan paid his associates Tk 25,000 each and kept the rest with him."We're interrogating them to find out more information regarding the robbery," he added.