Two people have been arrested over the death of a teacher during a robbery near parliament, but questions are mounting over whether the motorcycle seized by RAB is the one seen in CCTV footage.
At a Sunday briefing, RAB-2 chief Additional DIG Noymul Hasan identified Poni Gazi as the prime suspect and said a man known only as Sedric was his accomplice.
The victim, Ranjila Parvin, headteacher of Bagbari Government Primary School in Bogura’s Gabtali, had come to Dhaka with her husband for treatment.
On Saturday morning, two motorcycle-borne robbers snatched her bag near parliament’s South Plaza. She fell, suffered a head injury and later died in hospital.
RAB said it arrested the two within 24 hours and recovered a Yamaha R15 motorcycle from East Tejturi Bazar. Its owner, identified only as Rakib, was detained for questioning.
RAB said Rakib told investigators Poni had repeatedly taken his motorcycle using threats and had possessed it from Aug 26 until Saturday afternoon.
Ranjila’s husband Abdul Matin also identified it as the robbery vehicle.
RAB cited three grounds against Poni: his physical build matched the CCTV rider; 15 police sources identified him from the footage; and his and Sedric’s mobile phones were in the area between 2:30am and 4am.
Poni, however, strongly claimed that he was innocent and said his silver-and-black motorcycle could not be the blue bike seen in the footage.
RAB said Poni was a professional robber with 13 cases involving drugs, theft, intimidation, and robbery, while no specific information had emerged against Sedric.
Colour, Model Questioned
The CCTV bike appears blue, while RAB’s is silver and black. Assistant Prof Dipti Dutta of Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Arts said lighting or motion could not cause such a major colour difference, noting that other colours in the footage remained largely unchanged.
Motorcycle content creator Riqu Amir identified the CCTV bike as a 2020 Suzuki Gixxer SF and RAB’s as a Yamaha R15.
Riders also said the Suzuki could be black or navy blue, while the Yamaha has a largely pearl-white front body kit.
Noymul said the accused were arrested as suspects and added, “We will wait until things become clearer.”
His two phone numbers were later found switched off when contacted for comment.
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