Desk report : Police have arrested four young men in Khulna for extortion while impersonating members of the Detective Branch (DB) and student coordinators.
They were detained at around 10:30 PM on Thursday from a house in the Boyra Aziz Mor area of the city. During the arrest, police recovered gold ornaments that had been snatched from a tenant.
The arrested individuals are: Masud Rana, a former student of Khulna City College; Faisal Mahmud, a second-year student of Bagerhat PC College; Md. Salauddin, a final-year honors student of Government Sundarban Adarsha College; and Rifat Parvez Rafi from the same college.
The victim, tenant Iftikhar, stated that he is involved in cryptocurrency trading online. At night, the four intruders entered his house claiming to be from the DB. They confined him in a room, assaulted him, and demanded 200,000 taka, threatening to report him as an online gambling operator.
The men later identified themselves as student coordinators. Iftikhar said that since he couldn’t pay the money, they took his wife’s gold jewelry from the wardrobe. He was saved when other people suddenly arrived at the scene.
Locals reported that the four young men entered the house of retired police officer Mahfuz Ahmed, claiming that online gambling was taking place there.
Hearing sounds of violence after some time, neighbors entered the house and, after hearing the tenant’s complaint, detained the four suspects and called the police and army.
Humayun Ahmed, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Khulna Metropolitan Police, said the suspects initially entered the house identifying themselves as DB officers, then assaulted the residents and snatched gold ornaments while posing as coordinators.
Police arrested them along with the stolen items upon receiving the report.
He added that the suspects are giving different addresses at different times. They will be taken to Sonadanga Police Station for further questioning.