Scrap dealer among 2 held over PM's 'red telephone' wire theft

Dhaka Metropolitan Police's (DMP) Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit has arrested two people in connection with the theft of copper wire from the special 'red telephone' connection of the Prime Minister's Office in the Secretariat.

The arrested persons are - Secretariat outsourcing worker Ranjan Chandra, 25, and scrap dealer Rezakul Islam, 32.

This information was given by the DMP on Thursday (June 4) afternoon. At that time, 8 kg 200 grams of stolen copper wire was recovered from them.

DMP Commissioner Mosleh Uddin Ahmed said that recently, a special 'red telephone' connection wire of the Prime Minister's Office was stolen from the Secretariat. After learning about the matter, Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited (BTCL) filed a case against unknown persons with Shahbagh Police Station.

Considering the seriousness of the incident, the CTTC's City Intelligence Analysis Division started an investigation. At one stage of the investigation, Ranjan Chandra, an outsourcing employee of the Secretariat, was taken into custody for questioning on Thursday afternoon.

During the initial interrogation, Ranjan Chandra admitted that he stole the copper wire from Building No. 3 of the Secretariat on May 22. Later, on June 1, he sold a total of 8 kg 200 grams of wire at a scrapyard located in front of Amar Ekushey Hall of Dhaka University at a price of Tk 600 per kg.

Based on the information provided by him, scrapyard trader Rezakul Islam was arrested. Later, the police conducted a raid on a scrapyard warehouse on Hossaini Dalan Road of Chawkbazar Police Station in the capital and recovered the stolen wires.

The DMP Commissioner said that in the initial investigation, it is believed that an organized gang may be active behind the theft of various important infrastructure equipment and wires of the Secretariat. The matter is being investigated and whether anyone else is involved in the incident is being investigated.

Meanwhile, in a news briefing, the DMP Commissioner also spoke about the overall law and order situation in the capital. He said that although no major untoward incident took place in Dhaka during the Eid-ul-Azha holiday, some isolated incidents of theft, robbery and snatching took place. However, efforts are being made to quickly identify and arrest the accused in these incidents.

He also said that 2,048 people have been arrested in the capital for various crimes including extortion in the last one month. Of these, 658 have been arrested on charges of extortion. He also said that 70 artificial intelligence (AI)-based cameras have been installed at 57 important points to improve traffic management in the capital.