Killing 2 auto-rickshaw drivers by mixing sedatives in tea: Rajbari police arrest 5

Rajbari district police arrested five members of a dope gang who allegedly killed two battery-run auto-rickshaw drivers by mixing sleeping pills in their tea and stealing their vehicles in late January.

The arrestees are Saddam Hossain, Nizamuddin Salam, Akram Hossain, Robin Hossain and Ashique alias Akash.

All of them left the district after the killing. Several police teams arrested them from Dhaka city, its adjoining areas and Pabna, MM Shakiluzzaman, superintendent of Rajbari police told The Daily Star today.

Two auto-rickshaw drivers Ismail Sheikh (45) and Sujan Pathan (24), on January 26, were found unconscious at Goalanda and Kalukhali upazilas of the district. They were taken to hospitals where they died later on.

The SP said they carried out an investigation after knowing about two similar incidents in two upazilas and made the arrests.

During the primary interrogation, the arrestees said they belong to the same gang and admitted their involvement in the killings, the SP said adding the arrestees had long been involved in such crime. 

One of the gang members posing as a mobile tea seller used to mix slipping pills in the tea and offered the drivers.

The gang members used to make away with the vehicles once the drivers fall unconscious, the SP said.

Excessive doses of sedatives sometimes cause death to the victims like the two drivers, he said.