3 cops arrested for kidnapping
Five people, including three police personnel, were arrested for allegedly abducting a man and his mother from Dinajpur's Chirirbandar on Monday night and demanding ransom for their release.
Among the arrestees are: Sarwar Kabir Sohag, an assistant superintendent of police, Hasinur Rahman, an assistant sub-inspector, and Ahsanul Haque, a constable. They are working at the Criminal Investigation Department in Rangpur, said Moniruzzaman, Dinajpur court inspector.
Md Habib, driver of a microbus that was hired for conducting the abduction, was another arrestee.
The four were held in Doshmile area in Kaharol upazila on Tuesday afternoon.
The other arrestee is one Fashiul Alam Palash. He was held in Dinajpur town yesterday.
The five were sent to jail by a Dinajpur court yesterday.
According to locals and family members of the victims, an eight-member team led by an ASP of CID Rangpur came to Solemanshah village in a black microbus and four motorcycles and raided the house of Lutfar Rahman around 9:30pm on Monday.
Some were in uniform, said Abu Ali, a relative of the abductees.
They started looking for Lutfar, who was not home at that time. Later, they picked up his son Zahangir Alam, 28, and wife Jahura Akter, 50.
They also took away a motorcycle from the house, said Khalilur Rahman, another relative of the victims.
The villagers and their relatives looked for them through the night, but failed to learn their whereabouts. The next day, Chirirbandar police was informed of the incident.
The family members also lodged a complaint with Rab-13 CPC-1 in Dinajpur, seeking help.
Meanwhile, the suspects phoned Md Kamruzzaman, a relative of the victims, and demanded Tk 15 lakh ransom. They also threatened the family members with dire consequences if the police were informed.
The suspects allegedly said the two kidnapped would be murdered if the ransom was not paid.
"They contacted me over phone several times and demanded the ransom soon after the kidnapping. Finally, the family members agreed to give them Tk 8 lakh ransom to get them freed," Kamruzzaman added.
Later, the kidnappers asked the family members to pay the ransom in Baserhat area of Dinajpur Sadar upazila on Tuesday afternoon.
Meantime, police of Chirirbandar and Dinajpur Sadar made a plan to arrest the kidnappers with the help of villagers and relatives. As per the plan, they took positions in Baserhat, along the Dinajpur-Rangpur highway, said locals.
When the criminals realised that police were following them, they drove the microbus fast towards Doshmile area but got stuck in traffic. The villagers were able to catch the car.
Later, police detained the three CID personnel and the microbus driver and took them to Chirirbandar Police Station.
Three of the arrestees told Chirirbandar police that they were members of Rangpur CID. They were then taken to the Dinajpur SP office for further interrogation.
Hearing of the incident, top officials of Rangpur and Dinajpur CID went to the SP office.
Quoting the abductees, relatives said the abductors tortured them mercilessly and kept changing their locations.
Contacted, Subrata Sarkar, officer-in-charge of Chirirbandar Police Station, confirmed that the police rescued the victims after their abduction. But he refused to give any details of the people involved in the kidnapping.
Dinajpur SP Anwar Hossain also refrained from making any comments.
However, Ataur Rahman, an additional special superintendent of Rangpur CID, said three members of his department, including an ASP, were caught by locals over abduction allegations in Dinajpur.
Sources in the CID office in Rangpur said the three members conducted an unauthorised raid in Chirirbandar upazila. They added that the three were on a 10-day leave from August 21.
Debdas Bhattyacharia, DIG of Rangpur range, told this paper over phone yesterday that an untoward incident happened in Dinajpur. He added that action would be taken against those involved in the incident.
Yesterday, police arrested Fashiul Alam Palash and recovered the motorcycle taken from the victims' house from his home.
Victim Zahangir yesterday filed a case against 11 people, including the five arrestees.
Recording of statements of the victims was going on in court when this report was filed around 8:30pm.
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