Two businessmen kidnapped three days ago were rescued yesterday from the capital’s Rampura and Kamalapur areas by the Detective Branch (DB) of police and Armed Police Battalion (APBn), leading to nine arrests.
They were abducted separately by different gangs but the kidnappers used similar techniques.
Both gangs used women operatives to entice the businessmen to come to the abduction site, before demanding ransoms from their families.
“DB started an investigation into the abduction of Benapole Port C&F businessman Habibur Rahman and conducted a special drive in the capital’s Maniknagar area, rescuing him early yesterday,” Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DB police, said.
DB officials arrested six people, including two women, for their alleged involvement in the abduction, and found an imported pistol and a bullet from their possession.
The arrestees were Abdul Mannan Polash, 32, GM Jubayer Ahmed, 22, Mojibur Rahman, 44, Mahbubur Rahman Jisan, 17, Jannatul Ferdous Josna, 32, and Bristi Akther, 17.
The rescued businessman, presented before the press at the Media and Community Centre of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said he knew Polash, Jubayer and Josna.
Habib, former chairman of Putkhali Union, first met Josna in 2005 for business purposes. Polash was the business partner of his son-in-law, Jahangir. Six months ago, he and Jahangir stopped doing business with Polash.
Last Monday, Josna had called him asking him to meet her in Kamalapur.
“When I just reached the place, three or four people picked me up at gunpoint and forced me into a vehicle. They hid me in a room in Maniknagar.
“They tortured me unmercifully, and when I tried to flee, they pushed me down two flights of stairs.” Habib said the kidnappers demanded Tk60 lakh from his family but when they refused to pay, the abductors tortured him even more.
The DB chief said Polash was mainly an arms trader and Josna had a luggage business in India, adding: “We suspect the abduction was conducted for money but we will investigate further.”
Meanwhile, the APBn rescued businessman Imam Hossain, 53, from a house in front of the Sultan Market of Matubborbari in Baunia of the capital’s Turag area yesterday. Three people, including two women, were arrested for their alleged involvement with the abduction.
The arrestees were Toufiqul Islam Topon, 27, Afroza Akther, 22, and Ayesha Akther, 39.
Imam was kidnapped from the city’s Uttara area where he went to meet Afroza on receiving a call from her, APBn Assistant Police Superintendent (ASP) Amirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune.
The kidnappers are Imam’s former tenants who lived in his house in the capital’s Rampura area, ASP Amirul said.
They kidnapped Imam, took him to the house in Turag, and forcibly took indecent pictures of him which they intended to blackmail him with, he said, adding that the abductors demanded Tk1 lakh from Imam’s family as ransom.