Abduction of Man: Rab rescues victim, arrests 7 of a gang
The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) has rescued a man, who was abducted by a gang, from Chunkuti area in Keraniganj, and arrested seven abductors.
The gang of eight to nine people -- led by Haji Wajiullah Khokon, 65 -- abducted Anwar Hossain Khan, 44, at gunpoint from Narayanganj's Fatullah area on Wednesday night, Rab said.
Apart from Khokon, the other arrestees are Arif Hossain, Saif Uddin Ahmed Milon, Siratul Mustakim, Ruhul Amin, Zakir Hossain, and Md Swadhin.
They forcibly took Anwar to Keraniganj in a microbus and confined him to the office room of "Chunkutia Real Estate Limited," owned by Khokon, said Rab-3 commanding officer Lt Col Md Firoj Kabir at a press briefing yesterday.
Later, the abductors beat the victim with rods and sticks and demanded Tk 95 lakh as ransom from his family.
To save Anwar's life, his younger brother collected Tk 17.5 lakh and sent it to a bank account number provided by abductors.
However, they continued to torture the victim for the remaining amount while threatening to kill him and dump his body in the river, said the Rab official.
On information, a team of Rab-3 raided the real estate office, rescued the victim, and arrested the gang members on Thursday, while seizing a revolver and a shotgun.
During interrogation, the arrestees revealed that Khokon Haji, a contactor by profession, had been smuggling touchstone statues and rare brass coins into India since 2015, claimed the Rab CO.
He had sent seven consignments of illegal items to his Indian buyer between 2015 and 2017, he added.
The victim's brother-in-law Mustafa Hawladar used to collect statues and coins and in return, he used to get Tk 30,000 per month.
In 2017, Khokon tasked Mustafa with collecting Tk 95 lakh worth of touchstone idols and metal coins, but Mustafa provided fake idols and coins and grabbed the money, which irked Khokon, said the Rab officer.
"Since then, Khokon has been trying to nab Mustafa, who has been on the run. Upon receiving information that Mustafa's brother-in-law Anwar is in Tushara area, Khokon and his associates kidnapped him on Wednesday," he added.
Comments