The High Court yesterday directed police authorities to hand over charge of investigating the Tk16 crore Sonali Bank robbery in Kishoreganj to the Rapid Action Battalion within 48 hours.
The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain passed the order in response to a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, a legal aid organisation.
The court also asked why it should not issue orders to punish the masterminds of the robbery and probe any involvement of militants in the crime.
The home secretary, the inspector general of police, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, the director general of RAB, Kishoreganj police superintendent and officer in charge of Kishoreganj model police station were given two weeks to reply to the rule.
The court also sought a report of compliance of the order within two weeks, Manzil Murshid, lawyer for the petitioner, told the Dhaka Tribune.
The writ was filled with attached media reports suggesting possible militant connection to the looting of Tk16.40 crore through a tunnel bored into the vault of the state-owned bank’s main branch in Kishoreganj on January 26. RAB arrested two suspects and recovered part of the looted money on January 28.
