Leaders at home, robbers on highways

Locally, they were known as politicians or social workers. They even held social programmes spending a considerable sum of money.

However, their true faces emerge once they step outside their area. These so-called respected politicians are, in reality, notorious robbers.

Identifying themselves as police officials, they conducted robberies on highways after intercepting public transports.

Police's Detective Branch (DB) disclosed the findings of the robber gang with this newspaper on Thursday, following the arrest of its four members recently.

The arrestees are Mahtab Uddin, Kawsar Ahmed, Jamal Hossain, and Mujibor Rahman. The arrestees already disclosed the gang's activities in detail during remand. Besides, arrestee Kawsar has given a confessional statement before the court on January 24.

The detective arrested the four while investigating a bus robbery that took place on Dhaka- Shariatpur highway in October last year.

Investigators said the ringleader of the gang is Rasel Kabir.

On the day, two motorbikes intercepted our bus and the criminals got on board. All of a sudden, they stopped in front of me and started beating me. Other passengers were silent as they identified themselves as police.

— Rafiqul Islam, a victim

Hailing from Amtoli of Barguna, Rasel is involved with the politics of BNP and was the joint convener of the district's Holudia Union Jubo Dal unit.

Arrestee Mahtab is the gang's second-in-command. In his native town of Patuakhali, he is known as a contractor among the locals. Kawsar is also known as a contractor and a supporter of Jubo Dal's Patuakhali district unit, while Jamal and Mujibor are their associates, said detectives.

Mashiur Rahman, the deputy commissioner of DB (Lalbagh Division) under DMP, told The Daily Star that Rafiqul Islam, a trader, was going to his village home in Shariatpur from Dhaka after withdrawing Tk 41 lakh in cash from Babubazar area on October 6 last year.

On the way, a group of people, identifying themselves as policemen, stopped the bus he was travelling on in the Chunkutia area of Keranigan.

They then dragged Rafiqul out of the bus, beat him mercilessly, snatched away all his money and promptly left the spot. A case was filed over this incident with the South Keraniganj Police Station.

"On the day, two motorbikes intercepted our bus and the criminals got on board. All of a sudden, they stopped in front of me and started beating me. Other passengers were silent as they identified themselves as police,"  Rafiqul told this correspondent.

"They left me alone beside the road after taking all my money, " he added.

Detectives started a shadow probe into the case and were finally able to detect the gang after a month of investigation.

On November 4, last year, a DB team attempted to apprehend the gang in Old Dhaka's Sutrapur area, but they managed to flee by holding local shopkeepers at gunpoint.

However, the cops succeeded in arresting the four in a similar operation in mid-January.

Police recovered two motorbikes used for robbery, four cell phones, and Tk 11 lakh from their possession.

Asaduzzaman Mintu, chairman of the Holudia Union Parishad of the Amtoli area of Borguna, told The Daily Star that he had heard of Rasel's involvement with many criminal activities.

"He was missing from the locality for the last three to four months. We heard that he went into hiding in India or Dubai after police started looking for him," he said.

Mintu also mentioned that Rasel had no work but frequently spent large sums of money. "Even he spent around Tk 30 lakh to commemorate his parents' death anniversary in the neighbourhood," he added.

DC Mashiur Rahman of DB police said they had come to know that the robber gang targeted Rafiqul when he was at the bank to withdraw money.

"We are now conducting a drive to arrest Rasel and other members of the gang," he added.