Eight held over Dinajpur highway robbery after tree blocked road; laptops and phones recovered
Police in Dinajpur have arrested eight members of an inter-district robbery gang over a highway robbery in Nawabganj in which a tree was felled across the road. Two looted laptops and six mobile phones were recovered, and police put the estimated value of the looted goods at Tk 12 lakh.
Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime and Ops) Md Anwar Hossain gave the details at a press conference at the Dinajpur superintendent's office on Tuesday afternoon (October 20). Detective Branch (DB) OC Mohammad Alamgir was also present.
Police said the robbery took place between 2:15am and 2:45am on October 12 on the Nawabganj-Bhaduria road at Jamalpur mouza, Ward 3 of Mahmudpur Union No. 8 in Nawabganj upazila.
A gang of 12 to 13 people blocked traffic by felling a tree across the road, then held the drivers, helpers and passengers of three to four vehicles — including a Sundarban Courier Service covered van — at weapon-point and looted their goods.
The looted items included 28 mobile phones of various brands, four laptops, a computer monitor, three tablets, Tk 14,300 in cash, three mobile phone boxes, four cartons of medicine and 10 documents of various kinds, along with other goods, police said.
Sundarban Courier covered-van driver Md Arafat Pramanik filed a case with Nawabganj police station against 12 to 13 unnamed people, bringing robbery charges under Section 395 of the Penal Code.
After the incident, a DB team led by OC Mohammad Alamgir, under the overall direction of Additional SP Anwar Hossain, began a shadow investigation. Using technology, they identified and arrested eight suspects.
The arrestees are Shakil Sarkar (26) and Ruhul Amin (35) of Sadullapur, Gaibandha; Rashed Mia (30), Rabiul Pradhan alias Rubel (35), Saju Mia (53), Ariful Islam alias Chairman (42) and Miraj Mia (26) of Pirganj, Rangpur; and Shahin Mia (30) of Gobindaganj, Gaibandha.
Police said Saju Mia, Ariful Islam alias Chairman and Miraj Mia among the arrestees face multiple earlier robbery and banditry cases.
Acting on information from the arrestees, drives on the evening of October 19 at different times recovered two HP laptops and six mobile phones of Infinix, Oppo, Vivo, Honor, Samsung and Maxtel brands.
Police also seized a saw and a sickle used to cut the tree. The evidence is being matched against the preparation for the robbery and the felling of the tree on the road.
Police said anyone else involved would be identified through investigation and brought under the law. The eight arrestees have been handed over to Nawabganj police, and the investigation will continue to recover the remaining looted goods and identify fugitives.
