It was a literal highway robbery.

On 10 October, officials of Mother Textile were on their way to their Banani office, carrying Tk48 lakh with them.

They had just withdrawn Tk83 lakh from a bank in Uttara, paid Tk35.5 lakh to one of the partners at the bank and now just had one stop.

After getting on the expressway, they were suddenly chased and stopped by another car. 

Footage from the expressway's CCTV shows 4-5 persons blocked the path of the car at around 4pm.

Afterwards, the robbers forcefully entered the car. Two of them were sporting RAB jackets.

They got into the car, handcuffed the victims and blindfolded them.

The robbers then took control of the car and drove it to the 300-feet road.

They drove for about half an hour before eventually releasing the victims near Boalia Bridge in the evening.

The robbers snatched Tk48 lakh, a mobile set, and the company's chequebook.

These were the revelations made after the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested the perpetrators on Saturday (21 October). 

Old trick, new road

"All the perpetrators were arrested from various places across the country on Saturday," DB chief Harun-Or-Rashid said during a press conference at DMP Media Centre today (23 October).

He also said Tk23.5 lakh of the robbed Tk48 lakh has been recovered and efforts are on to recover the rest of the money.

The arrestees were identified as Sabuj Mia aka Shyamal, 39; Shahrul Islam aka Sagar, 23; Abu Yusuf, 41; Didar Munshi, 35; Ferdous Wahid, 35; Alamin Duari Dipu, 42; and Daud Hossain Mollah, 39. 

Each member of the group has 10 to 15 robbery, extortion and drug cases against them in 13 districts of the country.

A private car, RAB jackets, handcuffs, toy pistols, wireless sets, mobile phones, gold ornaments purchased with the robbery money and Tk23.85 lakh were recovered from them during the arrest.

After the robbery, the victims filed a case with the Khilkhet police station.

DB chief Harun said the group of robbers had been using the same method for a while now. 

They change the number plate of the car after each robbery and destroy the phones they use.

After each robbery, members of the group distribute the robbed money among themselves and go into hiding in different districts. 

Harun said the robbers kept some of the money looted for lawyers in case they needed one. 

Some of them paid their rent, some bought jewellery for their wives and some spent the money gambling.