Police capture 6 criminals, recover 12 cars
Rajib Molla had been prowling the Mirpur area on an August evening, looking for his prey. He had been on the search for hours. But fortune would not favour him that night readily, not yet. However, Rajib would rather give another try than give up.
Around 5:00am as he looked around, now more intensely, he found his prey — a pickup, parked on the road. There was nobody around, a perfect setting for a carjacker.
The 25-year-old opened the car door with his master key and drove away. That was his fourth catch from Mirpur in four months, he told reporters at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police office yesterday.
Police also produced five other members of the gang after arresting them from Dhaka, Chittagong and Feni between Friday and Sunday. Detectives also seized 12 stolen cars and a motorbike from their possession.
“I have a key. I can open old cars with the key very easily,” said Rajib, who gets between Tk 5,000 and 10,000 for every car he steals.
The other detainees are Sabuj, 26, Nurunnabi, 30, Moinuddin Moin, 30, Mahbub, 27, and Jahir, 35.
The gang operated mostly in the capital’s Mirpur and Pallabi areas, said Molla Nazrul Islam, deputy commissioner of DB (north).
The way the gang operated seems highly organised.
The stolen cars used to be first transferred to Jahir in Feni and then to Mahbub in Chittagong. Mahbub used to do the paperwork — arranging documents — before selling them for Tk 80,000 to Tk 1 lakh each, according to the DC.
“We hope we will find more information about the gang on further interrogation,” he added.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Montasir Rahman told this correspondent that the police received about 30 carjacking cases per month. “Different groups are active in the business in different areas of the city. We are trying to identify them.”
Sources in the police say the number of carjacking cases is much higher as most of the carjacking incidents remain unreported.
In August, law enforcers arrested at least 15 people over carjacking in the capital, recovering six cars and a motorbike from them.
Earlier in February, detectives arrested three alleged carjackers and recovered stolen parts of four vehicles at Siddhirganj in Narayanganj.
Despite such frequent arrests, carjacking in the capital is rampant because most of the arrestees come out of jail on bail and resume their old business.
“It’s true that criminals get bail and then start all over again. We’re trying to find a way to keep them in jail for a longer period,” said Nazrul Islam, deputy police commissioner of DB.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
