When guards are robbers

For a month they were in disguise of security guards. Even though they were accused in several criminal cases, they managed to land jobs at a private security company faking their identities.

When the company deployed them at a garment factory in Gazipur, they spent a month to figure out the best time to strike. At the dead of night on January 7, the gang fled with around Tk 3.5 crore and $25,000.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

This is the narrative Rapid Action Battalion provided at a press conference yesterday after busting a gang of robbers.

It was not the gang's first strike.

Rab arrested six members of the gang on Sunday. They had looted the money, meant for wages of factory staffers, by incapacitating four security guards.

Two of them -- Mahbubur Rahman, 51, Faruk Hossain, 50 -- had been working at the Knit Plus Ltd at Mouchak as security guards for over a month claiming to be Abdul Khaleque and Alam Sikder, Rab said.

The national ID cards the robbers had given their employer -- Institute of Safety, Security and Information Technology (ISSIT) -- proved to be false in Rab investigation, raising question about the recruitment process of such security service providers. 

The Rab personnel recovered Tk 1.17 crore, a truck, and a pistol from the possession of the gang members in drives that ended early yesterday.

The gang had bought garment factory machineries with the looted money to set up a factory of its own.

The four other arrestees are: Belayet Hossain Akanda, 42, Iqbal Hossain Rubel, 37, Khalilur Rahman Rana, 40, Uzzal Biswas, 34.

All of them, except Uzzal, took part in the robbery. Uzzal was arrested as some of the booty was in his possession.

GAZIPUR ROBBERY

Mahbub and Faruk's job was to track the money, assess internal situation in the factory and drug the security guards, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, director, Rab's legal and Media Wing, at the press briefing at the Rab Media Centre in Karwan Bazar quoting the arrestees.

The duo was on duty on January 7 night and they drugged the security guards of the factory with biscuits and drinks that had sedatives in them.

After the four guards passed out, the two let in the three others of the gang who were waiting outside. The three were wearing masks, as it appeared on the CCTV footage.

They then broke into the vault of the garment factory. The money was split before they left.

The force also recovered part of the stolen money. Photo: Star

According to Rab, Mahbub got Tk 70.26 lakh and $10,000, Faruk Tk 70 lakh and $2,000, Khalilur Tk 70 lakh and $10,000, Belayet Tk 50 lakh and $1,000 while Iqbal took Tk 60.50 lakh and $2,000.

They even destroyed a server on their way out, mistaking it to be the recorder of the CCTV cameras, Rab said.

Khondaker Jubayer, assistant manager (HR and compliance) of Knit Plus Ltd, said, “The money in the vault was for paying the wages of around 3,000 officials and staff of three factories the next morning.”

Rab said the gang had a plan to set up a garment factory with some of the money, some was deposited in bank accounts while the rest they kept with them.

“The gang had looted another garment factory in Badda area using the same technique in 2015,” said Mufti. 

According to Rab, Mahbub, Faruk, Rana were accused in a case filed following the Badda robbery.

Belayet was accused in a bank robbery case filed in Jhenidah and a jewellery shop robbery case filed in Chandpur.

Rubel is accused of murder in Barisal, Rab claimed.

“If people accused in different cases, including robbery and murder, are employed as security men, there is a risk of recurrence of such incidents,” said Mufti.

“There is a chance that militants could get into important institutions in disguise of security men, if their details are not verified properly,” he told The Daily Star after the briefing. 

Hundreds, if not thousands, of buildings in the capital use guards of private security service providers.