Desk Report:
The army has arrested five people on charges of extortion at a private clinic in the capital’s Mohammadpur area. They were arrested from the Bashila Housing City area on Sunday night and taken to Mohammadpur Police Station.
The arrested are Saiful Islam Rabbi (28), Hasibur Rahman Farhad (31), Abdur Rahman Manik (37), Abu Sufian (29) and Md. Shahin (38).
Mohammadpur Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Kazi Rafiq confirmed their arrest to Fast Bangla this Monday morning.
Rabbi was earlier arrested in the Dhanmondi area on charges of creating a ‘mob’ and demanding extortion and was taken to Dhanmondi Model Police Station. At that time, Rabbi was released from the police station on a bond by Jatiya Nagorik Party (NCP) leader Hannan Masud.
According to police and local sources, on Sunday evening, some people posing as ‘coordinators’ created tension over the death of a child at a clinic called Safe Hospital and demanded extortion from the hospital owner. When the hospital owner called, army members went and arrested five people. Later, the hospital owner filed an extortion complaint against them at the police station.
Police said that the arrested Saiful Islam Rabbi is the fourth accused in an extortion case at Mohammadpur Police Station. He had been absconding for a long time. Saiful Islam Rabbi was the convener of the anti-discrimination student movement of Mohammadpur Police Station. After that, he was expelled from the anti-discrimination student movement committee on various charges including extortion.
In this regard, Mohammadpur Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Kazi Rafiq said, ‘The army has arrested five people in the extortion case and handed them over to us. A hospital owner has filed an extortion complaint against them. We will verify it and file an extortion case. Among those arrested, one named Rabbi has a previous extortion case filed against him at our police station.
On the night of May 19, an agitated crowd and activists of the Student Movement Against Discrimination surrounded the house of Haqqani Publishers Chairman Golam Mostafa in Dhanmondi, calling him a friend of the Awami League. They tried to forcefully enter the house. After calling 999 and reporting the situation, the police went to the spot. Some of the people present pressured Golam Mostafa to arrest him and got into an argument with the police. In this incident, the Dhanmondi Police Station and Police took Saiful Islam Rabbi, the then coordinator of the Student Movement Against Discrimination at Mohammadpur Police Station, and some others into custody. The next day, Abdul Hannan Masud, one of the leaders of the Student Movement Against Discrimination, appeared at the Dhanmondi Police Station and released Saiful Islam Rabbi and others on bail.
