Banani police have arrested three people, including a member of the Rapid Action Battalion, for attempting to kidnap a travel agency proprietor and his nephew.
Confirming the arrest, the Banani Police Station chief Noor-E-Azam Mia said the trio was arrested in connection with a kidnapping attempt on the Mohakhali flyover on Saturday. He did not give further details.
One of the perpetrators was identified as Joy by television channel Jamuna TV, which was able to grab some footage of the incident, reports bdnews24.com.
The footage was shot while a team of the television station was coincidentally crossing the spot, the channel reported.
The footage showed two handcuffed men, identified as Shahidul Islam and his nephew Riaz, yelling for help around 2 am as some people in RAB vests were assaulting them.
Shahidul later told the TV channel that four men identifying themselves as RAB personnel were attempting to detain them by flashing guns, claiming they were acting on a tip-off that Shahidul and Riaz were members of a gold smuggling racket.
“When I asked them to search us before making the arrest, the men posing as RAB men started hurling abuses at us and threatened and handcuffed us. That’s when I became suspicious and started yelling for help,” he said.
Another man in a different car crossing the spot heard Shahidul’s cry for help and called 999 for police assistance.
The RAB men attempted to flee the spot when an off-duty police member on his motorcycle arrived at the scene.
The police member, who has identified himself as Sakib, said he saw three men wearing RAB vests flee the scene.
“Two of the men in RAB vests dropped their guns and ran away as soon as they saw me approaching,” he said.
The account of the fourth man involved in the kidnapping attempt was unclear.
After hearing the commotion, a mob gathered at the scene and managed to nab Joy.
Joy, who claimed that he acts as an undercover informant for the elite law enforcement agency, said that a RAB personnel named Momin asked him for his assistance to carry out “this operation”.
Later, a team from Bannai Police Station arrived at the scene and seized the handgun left by one of the perpetrators.