Dhanmondi heist: Target was the jeweller’s stashed gold

The robbery in Dhanmondi was well planned, as criminals collaborated with a network of individuals, who posed as Rab members, intelligence officers, informants, a magistrate, and even student representatives.

Their target was to loot a large amount of gold and money they believed was stashed in the building owned by a jewellery trader in Dhanmondi, investigators said.

Around 4:00am on Wednesday, a group of 25-30 criminals stormed the six-storey building on Dhanmondi Road No 8, owned by MA Hannan, proprietor of Alankar Niketan Jeweller's at Bashundhara City.

They took away Tk 36.5 lakh and 2.5 bhoris of gold ornaments, according to the case filed with the Dhanmondi Police Station.

"They introduced them as law enforcers, a magistrate, journalist, informants, and students to enter the building in the name of conducting a raid," Masud Alam, deputy commissioner (Ramna division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told a press conference at its media centre yesterday.

Police have arrested six suspects, including an army sergeant. They are army sergeant Farhad Bin Mosharraf, 33, Yeasin Hasan, 22, Mobasher Ahmed, 23, Wakeel Mahmud, 26, Abdullah, 32, and Sumon, 29.

The first four were held at the spot and the rest in the Hazaribagh area early yesterday.

DC Masud added that a lot of gold jewellery were stolen from the shop in August last year, and a case was lodged with Tejgaon Police Station in this connection.

Investigators said they would also look into whether there were any links between the robbery and the theft or any shop employee was involved.

Shah Mostafa Tariquzzaman, assistant commissioner (Dhanmondi zone) of DMP, told The Daily Star that they primarily suspect that four to five of the robbers were the masterminds.

At least three of the arrestees claim to be students of private universities, a claim that investigators are verifying.

Arrestee Wakeel told investigators that he and another suspect went to Dhanmondi for having sehri at a restaurant when an acquaintance asked them to join a raid as student representatives.

The AC said police were verifying their claims.

According to the officer, the gang initially planned to loot a large amount of gold and money from the building. When they failed to get as much gold as they expected, they vandalised the offices of SM Sourcing, a buying house, and took Tk 35 lakh.

As the amount was not sufficient for them, they then planned to abduct Hannan.

"They planned to demand a ransom by kidnapping Hannan. However, as locals and police came to the spot, their efforts failed," he said.

At that time, six people, including security guards from a nearby under-construction building, assisted the police in detaining four suspects.

The DMP has rewarded the six Tk 5,000 each and decided to appoint them to its auxiliary force.

The award recipients are Swapan Bhuiyan, 25, Bijoy, 40, Riazul Islam, 34, Delwar Hossain, 20, Siam, 18, and Tony, 20.