DNCC councillor Rajib arrested
Tarequzzaman Rajib, a councillor of Dhaka North City Corporation, was arrested from a house in city's Bashundhara Residential Area.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members nabbed Rajib, the councillor of ward-33, during a raid in the house around 11pm on Saturday on charge of his involvement in extortion and terrorist activities.
RAB Media Wing Assistant Director Mizanur Rahman confirmed the matter.
Seven bottles of foreign liquor, a pistol, three bullets and Tk 33,000 in cash were recovered from the house during the drive, the RAB official said.
Hours after his arrest, Jubo League expelled him as a joint general secretary of its Dhaka Metropolitan North unit.
Rajib went into hiding after the government launched a crackdown on illegal casinos.
bdnews24.com adds: The elite police unit, acting on a tip-off, surrounded the House No. 404 on Road No. 8 in the area on Saturday evening, a RAB spokesman said.
The areas under Rajib’s ward include Bosila, East and West Katasur, and Mohammadia Housing Society in Mohammadpur.
The RAB said it would conduct drives on his home at Mohammadia Housing Society and office at Mohammadpur in the wee hours.
RAB Media Wing Director Sarwar Bin Quasem told reporters that Rajib hid in a flat owned by one of his friends, a Bangladeshi expatriate in the US.
Rajib was alone in the flat and the raid was conducted without any trouble, RAB Executive Magistrate Sarwoer Alam said.
The RAB has recently arrested another councillor of a Mohammadpur ward, Habibur Rahman Mizan, in Srimangal with a gun and ammunition while he was trying to flee to India.
Fixed deposit receipt or FDR savings worth Tk 10 million was seized in a raid on his home later.
The government last Thursday removed Arambagh Krira Sangha chief AKM Mominul Haque alias Sayeed Commissioner as councillor of a ward in Dhaka’s Motijheel-Fakirapool following allegations of his links to illegal casinos.
Sayeed is a joint secretary general of Dhaka South Jubo League, a unit of the ruling party’s youth front embroiled in allegations of involvement of its leaders in illegal casino operations in sporting clubs.
The unit’s President Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat, Vice-President Enamul Hoque Arman and Organising Secretary Khaled Mahmud Bhuiyan have been expelled by the organisation over their alleged links to the casinos.
