Two muggers were held after a mob caught them as they were trying to run away snatching money from a businessman at Azimpur area of Dhaka today.

The muggers were given a thrashing by the mob and later handed over to Lalbagh Police Station.

Police then interrogated them and detained a cohort of the duo based on their information.

The detainees are Jinnat Hossain, 46, Nahid, 46, and Jashim, 35.

Jashimuddin, a businessman from Chittagong, hired Jashim’s rickshaw this morning to go to Mitford Hospital from Fakirapool in the capital, police said.

Instead of taking any direct route, Jashim drove the rickshaw all the way to Azimpur intersection and dropped the businessman there around 7:00am.

As he started walking, the two other muggers -- Nahid and Jinnat -- stopped him identifying themselves as detectives and took away Tk 16,000 from him in the name of checking his body, and then threatened him to go away.

As Jashimuddin shouted for help, locals caught the two and gave them a good thrashing, before handing them over to police, said Md Shafi, a floating vegetable trader, also an eyewitness of the incident.

Subhash Kumar Pal, officer-in-charge of Lalbagh Police Station, said in primary interrogation, the detainees confessed that they used to mug people identifying themselves as fake DB officials.