Handbag 'thief' is a driver

Detectives yesterday recovered the stolen handbag of the Netherlands ambassador to Bangladesh and arrested two people, including the alleged thief, in this connection.

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Rubel, 19, a driver by profession, was seen in the photographs taken by photojournalists before he stole the bag of Dutch envoy Leoni Margaretha Cuelenaere from an event on Dhaka University campus on Monday, said police.

He shaved off his beard soon after the incident so that he could not be identified easily, said police. 

Another arrestee Shams, 20, is an employee of a mobile phone shop at Bashundhara City Shopping Complex.

Police recovered all the items, including two mobile phones, an iPad and three passports, which were in the handbag. Rubel had already spent Tk 4,000 to 5,000 of what was in the bag, police said. 

Police said Saifur Rahman, an assistant sub-inspector of Police Headquarters, who is a neighbour of Rubel in Shanir Akhra area in the capital, identified him on Tuesday night in a Facebook photo where he was seen fleeing with the bag.

The ASI then informed his senior officials about the matter which led to the arrest of Rubel from his home around 9:00am yesterday. 

Based on Rubel's information, police later arrested Shams from his shop along with two mobile phones and the iPad, said Abdul Baten, joint commissioner of Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Briefing journalists at the DMP media centre yesterday, the police official said as soon as the ambassador approached to light a candle in that programme on Monday, Rubel took her handbag from her chair and stood near her, giving an impression that he was with her. 

At one stage, he left with the bag. He then spent some time at Suhrawardy Uddyan before going home with the bag.

The next day, he went to Bashundhara City Shopping Complex and sold the two phones and the iPad to Shams. Shams gave him Tk 10,000 and promised to give him more after selling those, the police official said.

Rubel then threw away the bag from the fifth floor of the complex before leaving. Finding the bag, security men of the complex looked for its owner and made an announcement through loudspeakers of the complex. They handed it over to the authorities concerned of the complex as nobody claimed it, Baten said.

Police are looking for the gang leader who told Rubel to steal the bag from the programme. 

Rubel, of Barisal, admitted his involvement in a number of thefts, the police official said. 

Replying to a query, Baten said police would take action against the mobile phone shop involved in reselling stolen mobile devices.

Preferring anonymity, a police official told The Daily Star that Rubel stole the bag, thinking that the foreigner's bag might carry foreign currencies and valuable items.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Cuelenaere thanked the police and the Bangladesh government for their cooperation in recovering the handbag, said the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangladesh in a Facebook post yesterday.