Four held over Tk 10m extortion bid at garment factory in Dhaka

Four people have been arrested over allegations of demanding Tk 10 million in extortion from the owner of a garment factory in Dhaka’s Kafrul and firing blank rounds when he refused to pay.

The arrestees are Rana, 31, Md Sagar Sheikh, 28, Md Kalu, 28, and Shashi, 22, reports bdnews24.com.

KN Ray Niyoti, an additional superintendent of police and spokesperson for RAB-4, said the Rapid Action Battalion arrested the four extortionists in raids in the Mirpur area on Sunday night.

According to the RAB, a group of 12 to 13 men entered AKM Apparels on Saturday evening and demanded Tk 10 million from factory owner Kamrul.

When he refused, two of them pulled out pistols and fired blank rounds, the elite force said.

The group also vandalised an office locker and threatened to kill Kamrul if the money was not paid within three days. Before leaving, they took away the DVR and hard disk of the factory’s CCTV system.

Kamrul later filed a case with Kafrul Police Station.

At a media briefing at the RAB-4 headquarters in Mirpur on Monday, Niyoti said the suspects were identified from CCTV footage.

“Rana is the mastermind behind the incident. He had visited the factory beforehand to assess its security arrangements,” he said.

“He believed a large sum of money could be extorted by intimidating the owner. They then entered the owner’s room with weapons and demanded the money.”

Niyoti said the four were involved in a range of crimes in Mirpur, Kafrul and surrounding areas, including extortion, drug trading and establishing criminal dominance.

“Multiple cases have been filed against them at different police stations in Dhaka. They were regularly involved in mugging, theft and extortion,” he said.

Asked whether the firearm used in the shooting had been recovered and whether more suspects would be named, he said the operation was still under way.

“For the sake of the investigation and the operation, we are not disclosing names at this stage.”