To catch a 'Bullet'

Mehedi Hasan Saikat alias Juwel Munshi, 25, was popularly known as “Bullet” in the underworld.

The nickname was not born because of his speed but rather the cult of personality he cultivated. In the back alleys of the crime world, there was a saying stemming from his cult: A bullet fired by Bullet's hand has never missed.

A contracted killer, he also dabbled in muggings. For each assassination Bullet charged between Tk 5,000 to Tk 20,000.

However, as law enforcers recently began cracking down on such shooters, Bullet left the “profession” and focused his energies on creating a strong mugging syndicate of 50 people, most of them aged below 18.

Bullet's sensational story was brought to light by the Detective Branch of police (DB) following the arrest of Bullet and his right-hand man Rubel from the capital's Tejgaon Industrial area on November 29. Police also recovered a shotgun, a revolver and 10 rounds bullets from their possession.

Both of them are now on a three-day remand.

This was not the first time that Bullet had found himself behind bars. 

On July 8, 2014, Rapid Action Battalion arrested Bullet and three others on the charge of the gun attack on Awami League central leader AKM Enamul Hoque Shameem.

Shameem was shot twice in the left hand on June 19 of the year, near the capital's Dhanmondi area. Addressing a media briefing at the time, Rab said Bullet had admitted during interrogation that he was hired for Tk 20,000.

DB officials said after Bullet's release from jail a year and half ago, he established the mugging group.

Hailing from Gopalganj, Bullet came to Dhaka in 1997 with his mother and was admitted to VK Aftab Government Primary school in Tejkunipara, where he continued his studies till third grade.

However, he stopped his academic pursuit in 2004 and started working at a potato storehouse in Karwan Bazar.

While working there, he got engaged in petty theft, cutting sacks carrying potatoes, rice and onions of different storehouses and then stealing those.

During this time, in an unspecified incident, one of his friends, Rafiq, was killed and Bullet was sent to a correction centre in Gazipur after his arrest, according to law enforcers.

After coming out of there in 2006, Bullet stepped into the criminal world and started working as a hired shooter.

Sahadat Hossain, assistant commissioner of DB police, told The Daily Star yesterday that they first arrested Rubel in a mugging case and interrogated him about a missing phone.

At the time, the law enforcers did not know who they would end up pursuing.

Rubel informed police that he had no information about the phone but his boss Bullet might have an update, he said.

Using the lead, police later arrested Bullet, who is wanted in a number of cases filed with Dhanmondi and some other police stations in the capital, said Sahadat.

During interrogation, Bullet told investigators that shooting or killing people had become harder in recent months and so he had returned to mugging, said a high official of DB police.

The official, requesting anonymity, said Bullet had set up a big mugging gang in just one and half years and controlled the city's Farmgate and Karwan Bazar.

Bullet told investigators that his group members used to mug people using different techniques -- on motorbikes, using firearms or by snatching cell phones after cutting the roofs of CNG-run auto-rickshaws, said the official.

“Bullet used to pay different amounts from Tk 500 to Tk 1000 or more to his group members for the mugging activities,” the official added.