2 cops arrested for abducting three youths

Two police officers, who allegedly abducted three youths from Gazipur's Kaliakair upazila for ransom, were arrested yesterday.

They are Abdullah Al Mamun of Kaliakair Police Station and Moshrafiqur Rahman of Mirzapur Police Station in Tangail. Both are assistant sub-inspectors.

The two were arrested a day after their withdrawal from respective police stations for abducting the youths and threatening them to kill in “crossfire unless they paid Tk 30 lakh”, according to police. 

Rashel Sheikh, an additional superintendent of Gazipur district police, said they took the two policemen in their custody after both had admitted their involvement in abduction. They were trying to find who else were involved in it, he added. 

Earlier on Thursday, the police high-ups withdrew the two cops and attached them to the police lines of respective districts.

Though both the accused admitted abducting Raihan Sarker and Labib Hossain of Kaliakair upazila and Nawshad Islam of Sreepur upazila, one claimed the other had planned it, police sources said.

Raihan last night filed a case against the two ASIs and seven other unnamed people with Kaliakair Police Station, said SI Moniruzzaman, duty officer of the police station.

Talking to The Daily Star, Nawshad's father Mujibur Rahman said the victims along with their two other friends were going to the trade fair in the capital by a private car from Gazipur on Wednesday.

On their way, they stopped at Shila Filling Station around 3:30pm for refuelling. While the three remained inside the car, their two friends Taribullah and Rakibul went to a nearby tea stall to have tea, he said.

Suddenly, some plainclothes men including the two police officers arrived there in two cars and dragged the three youths into their vehicles.

The policemen whisked them to an under-construction flyover in Mirzapur of Tangail and demanded Tk 30 lakh for their release. After negotiation, the ransom was fixed at Tk 10 lakh, Mujibur quoted his son as saying.

Taribullah and Rakibul, who saw their friends being taken away, immediately contacted the victims' families and Kaliakair police. The youths were rescued from the flyover by a joint team of Kaliakair and Mirzapur police later around 8:00pm.  

According to Gazipur police, the two cops earlier had taken money from several families after picking up their near ones, but this was the first time they got caught.