The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) yesterday arrested five members of a kidnapping gang in the capital’s Uttara area, recovering a hefty sum of ransom money.
“The elite force recovered Tk1.8 crore and cheque books of various banks from the possession of the abductors in a drive in the Koshaibazar area of Dokkhinkhan in Uttara,” Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of RAB’s legal and media wing, said.
The arrestees were identified as Mizanur Rahman alias Mizan, 34, Rezaul Karim, 36, Nazrul Islam, 32, Jahir Uddin Babor, 37, and Shah Waliullah, 37.
The RAB commander identified Abir, the boy who had been abducted, as the only son of Shahadat Hossain Shamim, managing director of the Teenage group of companies.
“The brains behind the scheme was Mizanur Rahman,” Mufti Mahmud said.
The RAB commander said Abir was kidnapped on his way home to Mohakhali DOHS from Uttara, when his abductors, posing as law enforcement personnel, stopped his car on the Banani flyover.
Mufti Mahmud said Abir was taken to a location on Airport Road and the car he was travelling in abandoned in Bashundhara residential area.
Abductors demanded Tk10 crore in ransom money from Shahadat Hossain Shamim and finally agreed to take Tk2 crore, the RAB official said. The abducted boy’s father paid out Tk1.73 crore through Mercantile Bank and Dutch-Bangla Bank.
After paying out the final Tk27 lakh in cash, Shamim was reunited with his son near the Radisson Hotel on May 6.
The RAB officer said Abir’s family did not inform them about the kidnapping. RAB intelligence discovered the plot independently, contacted Shamim after Abir’s return and then launched their drive.
