Detectives have recovered Tk60 lakh out of Tk80 lakh that was stolen from a vehicle of National Bank Limited (NBL) last month.
Four people have been arrested in connection with the robbery from different areas of Dhaka on the early hours of Tuesday.
The suspects are Md Hannan alias Briefcase Hannan alias Robin alias Rafiqul Islam, his wife Parveen, and associates Md Mostafa and Md Babul Mia.
The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) conducted a drive in the capital and apprehended the four, also seizing two firearms from their possession.
DB Joint Commissioner Mahbub Alam confirmed the matter in a press briefing on Tuesday. He said Hannan is the leader of the gang and accused in over 30 cases filed with various police stations.
“Although we recovered Tk60 lakh, they spent the remaining Tk20 lakh in various ways,” the joint commissioner added.
DB are still investigating the matter and looking into how they actually spent the money, he further said.
Describing the robbery, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of DB South division Saifur Rahman Azad told Dhaka Tribune that Hannan and his associates were originally members of the Tana party group.
At 12pm on May 10, an executive of NBL accompanied by security guards went to its Islampur branch to collect money after having already collected money from a different branch. A security guard and the driver stayed in the vehicle while the executive officer and another security guard went into the branch.
While the two were inside the branch, Hannan and his other associates approached the vehicle and engaged the remaining security guard and driver in conversation.
At one point, the security guard sent the driver inside the bank to find out why it was taking so long to collect the money. Seizing the opportunity, Hannan opened the door of the vehicle and stole the money that had already been collected while his associates distracted the security guard.
Later, Hannan met up with his associates at a house in Armanitola and paid them Tk25,000 each, according to ADC Saifur.
He also said the court had granted three days remand for questioning them.
Earlier, the money went missing from a collection vehicle of NBL in the Old Dhaka area on May 10.
Later, police detained four people -- Jahangir Alam, executive officer of the bank's head office, security guards Shah Alam and Yunus Ali, and driver Abdul Latif.
On May 12, a Dhaka court placed them on remand in a case filed in connection with the missing amount.
Kotwali police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mizanur Rahman said Jahangir Alam, along with the two armed security guards, collected the money from various branches of the bank in Old Dhaka.
When the vehicle reached the Babubazar area on their way back to the head office in Motijheel, one of the security guards noticed that a bag of the money, which contained Tk80 lakh, was missing.
Habibur Rahman, senior executive vice president of the bank's Dilkusha branch, filed a case against unnamed robbers with the police station on May 10.