3 members of a robbery gang held in Dhaka

Police claimed to have arrested three members of a robbery gang in the capital's Mohammadpur area that used to knock autorickshaw drivers unconscious to steal their vehicles on Friday night.

The three were identified as Manik Sarder, Md Delower, and Ilias Kanchan, AKM Hafiz Akhtar, additional commissioner (crime and operations) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police told a briefing at its media centre yesterday.

During primary interrogation, they gave information about their gang and confessed to stealing around 200 autorickshaws so far, the official said.

The gang, posing as passengers, would hire battery and CNG-run autorickshaws and befriend the driver.

Then they would offer them food spiked with sedatives to knock them unconscious, before making away with their vehicle.

The stolen autorickshaws would then be sold in the Kamgrangirchar area for Tk 15,000 to Tk 20,000 each.

On November 2, pedestrians found a CNG-run autorickshaw driver, Moktar Hossain, 60, in an unconscious state from Shyamoli's PC Culture area.

Later, he was taken to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, where the duty doctors declared him dead.

The victim's son Habib Hossain later filed a case with Mohammadpur Police Station.

As part of the investigation, police arrested the three and recovered around 18 stolen autorickshaws at the location they disclosed during interrogation.

The gang operated in groups of three to four members, said police.

Police suspect the gang may have 10-12 members. They are now trying to arrest them.