Shrine money loot case against former RAB-7 chief will proceed

The High Court has turned down former RAB-7 chief’s petition that sought quashing of the robbery case of more than Tk 20 million from a Chittagong shrine in 2011.

The bench of Justice M Moazzam Husain and Justice Md Badruzzaman passed the order on Wednesday.

Lawyers Abdullah Al-Mamun Rana and Mohammad Enam stood for the plaintiff at the court while BM Ilias Kochi represented the accused - former RAB-7 commanding officer Lt Col Zulfiqar Ali Majumdar.

Rana told bdnews24.com: “A rule was pending over the petition of Zulfiqar. Today the rule has been rejected. So there is no bar to proceeding on the case now.”

Some plainclothes members of RAB-7 on Nov 4, 2011 year entered the Talsara Darbar Sharif in Anwara Upazila and allegedly looted the money. 

The RAB team arrested five Myanmar nationals, whom they handed over to police, but did not say anything about the money.

Four months later, the driver of the shrine Idris Ali on Mar 13 filed a robbery case with Anwara Police Station accusing Zulfiqar, several of his subordinates and three of their informers for committing the robbery.

The RAB authorities sent its accused personnel back to their parent forces after a departmental investigation found them guilty of robbery.

Zulfiqar was posted to Army Training and Doctrine Command unit in Mymensingh Cantonment. Later the army carried out a departmental investigation and sacked him.

The Anwara Police Station and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in a joint operation arrested Zulfiqar from Moghbazar in Dhaka on May 3, 2012.

Inspector Abdus Samad pressed charges against seven accused in 2012.

Besides Zulfiqar, the other accused are Flight Lt Sheikh Muhammad Hasan, deputy assistant director Abul Bashar, sub-inspector Tarun Kumar Basu, and RAB sources Didar Ul Alam, Anwar Mia and Manab Barua.

Five accused arrested in the case have already given confessional statements to the court.