Detectives in special drives arrested 16 members of a gang who allegedly used to commit robbery in the guise of DB police, from Gazipur and Dhaka on Monday.

The arrestees were Shahidul Islam Majhi, 53, Sagar Chandra, 30, Shah Alam Hawladar, 35, Quamrul Islam, 30, Maksudul Moin, 43, Hasan, 38, Nurul Islam, 30, Khalilur Rahman, 46, Akram Hossain, 38, Dwin Islam, 35, Elias Ahmed, 32, Farhad Ali, 66, Riaz Hossain, 31, Shafiqul Islam, 50, Serajul Islam, 44 and Zahirul Islam, 38,

Tipped off, a team of Cantonment DB zonal team of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) conducted a drive in Mouchak area of Kaliakoir upazila of Gazipur district and arrested the ringleaders of the gang Shahidul, Sagar, Shah Alam, Quamrul and Maksudul at night, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner for media Faruk Hossain while briefing reporters on Tuesday.

Based on the information gleaned from Shahidul, the DB team arrested the other members of the gang from Demra and Khilkhet area in Dhaka.

They also seized two jackets, two signal lights, one handcuff and stickers.

During interrogation, they said that they in collusion with others used to follow customers of banks and money exchange offices in Motijheel, Paltan, Dhanmondi and Gulshan areas.

Later, the other members of the gang picked up the targeted person into microbus and looted valuables including cash money, said DC Faruk.

They were also wanted in several cases, he said.

During interrogation, police also came to know that Abdul Aziz, the plaintiff of a case, received Tk 13 lakh from his friend and hired a motorbike from Paltan intersection to go to his Khilkhet residence around 5:45 pm on June 17.

At 7:55, three to four people from a microbus waylaid the motorbike and picked him up into a microbus in the guise of DB police.

Later, they beat him up inside the microbus after tying his hands, eyes and legs and looted money, kept in a bag. They also looted three mobile phone sets, and withdrew Tk 37,000 using the pin number of bKash agent. Then they freed him at Kanchan Bridge of Rupganj upazila.

After getting the complaint, the DB team conducted the drive and managed to arrest the muggers with the help of technology.