Rapid Action Battalion members on Thursday arrested three youths from Sathiya of Pabna in connection with the killing of a private university student on November 19.
The arrestees were Shahanur Sheikh, 22, Raja Pramanik, 38, and Biplob Mollah, 28.
Golam Rabbi, a BBA student and a resident of the capital’s Kallyanpur, was strangulated to death after he was abducted allegedly by his friend Salam and taken to Sathiya.
On September 19, Rabbi met a youth named Md Salam at a tea stall near his house and the two soon became friends. However, within a few days of their friendship, Rabbi was dragged to the world of drugs and became an addict with Salam’s influence. Within two months of the friendship, the new friend killed Rabbi with the help of three others.
This conclusion was brought by RAB after investigating into the killing of Rabbi. The elite force disclosed the findings at a press conference yesterday at RAB 4 office.
RAB at the press briefing said they were yet to arrest Rabbi’s friend Salam. They said the victim was a student of a private university in the capital and the abductors had demanded Tk10 lakh as ransom from his family.
Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, director at Legal and Media Wing of RAB, said on November 19, Salam called Rabbi out of his home in Kallyanpur and asked him to pick up a consignment of yaba from the Gabtoli bus stand in the capital. At some point, Salam and his cohorts took Rabbi to Sathiya of Pabna that night, strangled him to death, and hid the body under a hyacinth, he added.
On November 25, Sathiya police recovered the body.
In the meantime, Rabbi’s father Anwar Hossain filed a complaint with RAB 4 saying that abductors had asked him Tk10 lakh as ransom for his son’s life, the RAB commander said.
He said: “When the victim’s father went to Sathiya and identified his son’s body, criminals phoned him asking for the money which they had demanded. They threatened to kill other members of his family if he did not pay the ransom.”
According to the RAB official, Rabbi was intoxicated and then killed.
After the briefing, Biplob told reporters: “Rabbi was creating trouble and so we decided to kill him. Shahanur and I first hit him and after he fell down, we sat on his chest and strangulated him. Raja held his legs.”
