Rab claims taking over cases

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday said they had taken over two cases, one filed against 45 persons, including 37 foreigners, for illegally running VoIP business and the other against 14 of the foreigners for failing to produce passports.
On information, a Rab-1 team raided a six-storey building in Uttara's Sector 12 on December 22 and arrested the foreigners and six Bangladeshis and seized Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment worth around Tk 1 crore.
Of the foreigners, five are Chinese and 32 Taiwanese.
Rab Media Wing Director Habibur Rahman told The Daily Star that Rab would handle the cases.
However, Uttara Pashchim Police Station Officer-in-Charge Khandaker Rezaul Hasan said they had received a letter yesterday containing the Rab request and were waiting for confirmation for the transfer from Police Headquarters.
As per the law, arrestees have to be handed over to police “but any other law enforcement wing can take over the case and conduct investigations”, he said.
Of the 43 arrestees, a Dhaka court on Tuesday allowed the Uttara police to take each of the 42, including the foreigners, on a two-day remand and the remaining one on a one-day remand in the case over the VoIP business.
Rab will conduct the remand, said Rab-1 Commanding Officer Kismat Hayat.
The remaining two accused, the building's owner Latifunnesa Shamsuddin and manager Faruque Hossain, are on the run.