A Rab officer mentioned in a case that he arrested two men with a firearm at the capital’s Madhya Pirerbagh late at night on March 30. 

Abdur Rahim Sultan Baizid and Bellal Hossain were on a motorcycle when they saw a Rab team and tried to flee, wrote Rab-4 Petty Officer Golam Rasul.

The Rab team caught them and found a revolver and two bullets in their possession around 10:30pm, said the complaint filed with Mirpur Model Police Station.

But security camera footage and other evidence seen by this correspondent suggest Baizid and Bellal were picked up and put into a grey microbus at 10:13pm from near the Islamic Foundation office, which is more than 2km away from the place of occurrence mentioned in the case.

Those who detained them also took away a Yamaha FZ v2 motorcycle from Baizid, 27, and Bellal, 35 — both residents of Pashchim Agargaon.

In a CCTV footage from the Islamic Foundation area, a grey microbus is seen stopping near the parked motorbike at 10:13pm for one and a half minutes.

A man in a yellow shirt then rides away on the motorcycle, and the microbus follows it.

In another clip from Kamal Sarani at Madhya Pirerbagh, the man in yellow shirt with a pillion rider holding a wireless handset stops the motorcycle next to New Autocar Solution Works at 10:53pm.

Four minutes later, the grey microbus and a Rab pick-up arrive. Baizid and Bellal, both in handcuffs, step out of the microbus.

Baizid’s mother Shahnaz Sultana said the Rab men rode the motorcycle while keeping her son and his companion in the microbus.

The law enforcers then put the firearm and bullets under the seat to stage a recovery and accuse him in a case, she said.

She added that a local internet service provider had bribed the Rab team to frame Baizid because of a rivalry over business matters.

She filed a case against Akhtaruzzaman, special company commander of Rab-4, and five others with a Dhaka court on April 3.

The other accused are local internet service provider Shihabul Islam Shayan, Petty Officer Rasul, Rab informants Saiful Islam Mithu and John, and local Awami League leader Shantu Rahman Dulal who used his connections to “get Rab to frame her son and Bellal”.

The Rab Headquarters (Rab HQ) in April started an investigation after the then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan sent the Rab director general a complaint filed by Shahnaz. Shahnaz also met the then textile minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak and sought justice.

The Rab HQ on April 29 formed a three-member committee and temporarily attached to the HQ 20 Rab-4 members who participated in the operation, according to a letter issued to the Rab-4.

Sources have confirmed that the Rab HQ inquiry committee had interrogated the Rab members.

Constable Jhuton Bain has admitted in writing that the Rab team picked up Baizid and Bellal from near the Islamic Foundation office in Agargaon at the orders of Operation Commander Akhtaruzzaman.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Atikul Haque rode Baizid’s motorcycle from Agargaon with Akhtaruzzaman as the pillion, he wrote.

Jhuton said he and the others searched the motorcycle 40 minutes after Baizid and Bellal were detained.

He added that the Rab team had not planted the firearm and bullets on the motorcycle, noting that “there was scope to do such a thing since the motorcycle was in our custody”.

Baizid walked out of jail in May after one month and 26 days.

His mother said Baizid, Billal and a local named Noor Alam were talking when the microbus stopped near them.

“A man stepped out of the vehicle and asked who Baizid was. When my son nodded, more men got down and forced him into the microbus. Baizid later learned that the man who approached him was Akhtaruzzaman,” she said.

Noor Alam gave a similar account of the incident. He was not picked up by the Rab team.

Baizid told his mother that the Rab men handcuffed and blindfolded him in the microbus and when he asked who they were, the men slapped him.

“Then he heard the men talk about where they should go. The men made it seem like they were going to kill him in a ‘crossfire’,” Shahnaz said.

After a while, they removed the blindfold and made him get down at Moddho Pirerbagh. Akhtaruzzaman then asked Baizid to remove the motorcycle seat. But, Baizid refused because he noticed that somebody had lifted the seat by force and failed to put it back properly.

“Then a Rab man kept hitting him with a stick until he complied,” Shahnaz said, adding that when he lifted the seat he saw the firearm and bullets.

In the case, Petty Officer Rasul wrote that the Rab team found a 8.5 inches long revolver and two bullets under the seat of Baizid’s motorcycle.

Owners of two nearby shops Muhammad Zahid and Jahangir Alam were named as witnesses.

Contacted, Jahangir said he was at his shop when a man in Rab uniformed asked him to step out of the shop and take a look at what had been found in possession of a suspect.

“After I went and saw the firearm and bullets, they asked me to sign a paper, and I did,” he added.

Zahid refused to make comments, saying he faced a lot of trouble after he talked to a reporter earlier.

A dealer of Yamaha motorcycles and a mechanic said the seat does not properly fall in place if one puts something as large as a revolver under it.

Sub-Inspector Rishit Khan who investigated the case filed by Rab said he pressed charges after the probe and refused to make comments.

Contacted, Akhtaruzzaman said there was no false information in the complaint filed against Baizid.

When asked about the discrepancies, he said, “The court will decide if there are problems in the case.”

Jahangir Alam, superintendent of police at Dhaka North Police Bureau of Investigation, who is investigating the case filed by Baizid’s mother, said, “We will investigate the case neutrally.”

Arafat Islam, immediate past director of Rab Legal and Media wing, said when a complaint is lodged, a Rab HQ cell investigates.

“If anyone is found guilty, he or she must face punishment,” he added.