The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested five people in different areas across Bangladesh on charges of selling a three-year-old boy online after kidnapping him from the Dhaka Udyan area in Mohammadpur, Dhaka.
Additional DIG Md Anwar Hossain Khan, the captain of RAB-2, gave the information at a press conference at Kawran Bazar RAB Media Centre in the capital on Friday.
The arrestees are the abductor, Piyush Kanti Paul, 29; his wife and associate Riddhita Paul, 25; middleman Sujan Sutar, 32; buyer Pallab Kanti Bishwash, 52; and his wife Baby Sarker, 46.
The child was abducted from in front of his house in Mohammadpur. The abductors had tempted him to come with them by offering him mangoes. Later, the abductors gave an advertisement online to sell the boy.
They sold the child in Gopalganj for just Tk2 lakh.
The RAB official said that the abducted child was playing with his elder sister Humaira, 8, and seven-eight other children and teenagers in front of their house in Mohammadpur at noon on April 26. At this time, an unknown person gave candies to everyone. After a while Humaira was sent home and they abducted her younger brother Siddik.
At the end of the day, when their mother came home, Humaira told her everything.
After searching for her son, she filed a general diary (GD) at Mohammadpur police station. Later, Delwar Hossain, the father of the abducted child, filed a case under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act at the same police station.
Afterwards, the police collected CCTV footage from the area.
Later, RAB-2 started investigating the case following an application by the child's father.
It was learned through information technology that the abductors were Piyush Kanti Pal and his wife Riddhita Paul, residents of Savar. The couple posted an advertisement in an online group for selling the child.
They then sold the boy to Pallab Kanti Biswas and his wife Baby Sarkar via Sujan Sutar.
RAB says that they arrested Sujan Sutar, who is involved in child trafficking, at Shahbagh, Dhaka. Later, based on the information given by him, the abducted child was rescued from Tarasi village of Kotalipara upazila of Gopalganj on Thursday.
Anwar Hossain also said that Piyush Kanti Paul, the mastermind of the kidnapping, hails from Panchagarh. He used to work part-time at a beauty parlour or spa centre while doing his MBA at a private university. Piyush met Riddhita while working at the spa centre. Later, they got married in 2020.
While working at the spa centre, he became involved in human trafficking, according to RAB.
In May 2022, a case was filed against him at Banani police station on charges of human trafficking.
He was released on bail after spending some days in jail in this case.