Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Tuesday the alleged mastermind along with his associate of the sensational heist in the Kishoregonj district branch of Sonali Bank Limited (SBL) from the capital's Shyampur area.
The arrestees were identified as Habibur Rahman alias Sohel Rana and his accomplice Idris Miah.
The elite strike force also recovered five sacks of money from their possession two days after the biggest burglary of Tk 164 million in the country's banking system. This has led the bank managers to pay serious attention to the security arrangements in and around the vaults.
When contacted, Wing Commander ATM Habibur Rahman, director of legal and media wing of Rab, said the intelligence officials of the force, acting on a tip off, raided a multi-storied apartment building in Shyampur's Balur Math area and detained them from there.
They also recovered five sacks full of currency notes from their possession during the drive, the Rab spokesman said adding that they have been counting the seized money.
Seeking anonymity, a senior Rab official said the detainees were residing in a rented apartment at Shyampur for the last three days.
Habibur Rahman, who hails from Patuakhali district, has been residing in a rented house at Rothkhola in Kishoregonj district town in the name of Sohel Rana for the last two years, he said.
Then the RAB personnel took the arrestees with the recovered money to the Uttara headquarters of RAB.
While briefing the reporters after finishing the counting process, Director General of RAB Md Mukhlesur Rahman said nearly Tk 162 million was found inside the seized sacks.
He said the arrestees admitted that they spent some money for shopping purpose. "It will be known how much money they spent after investigation."
"Habibur Rahman is the mastermind of the heist and we arrested him from the sixth floor of the building," he said, adding that he has been planning to commit such burglary for the last two years.
"But we're yet to know whether the kingpin was directly engaged in looting of other banks in the past," he said citing the preliminary interrogation.
The chief of the force said they came to know during the initial grilling that some of the officials of the bank concerned were involved in the looting.
The RAB DG said they had started working to arrest the miscreants since the burglary took place at the SBL main branch in Kishoregonj. "And we've done it successfully."
Responding to a question, he said they will hand over the arrestees to police who are investigating the heist. "More people might be involved in connection with the burglary and they will also be arrested, if any."
When contacted, Officer-in-Charge of Kishoregonj Model Police Station, Abdul Malek said they will take next course of action regarding the issue after recording the statements of the duo arrested by the Rab.
Unidentified miscreants took away Tk 160.40 million by digging a tunnel to the vault from a nearby building, only 20 yards away from the bank. The bank officials discovered the tunnel on Sunday afternoon last when they entered the second cell of the bank's vault to get money for transactions.
Soon after the heist, local police detained some 16 people, including the branch manager AKM Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan, vault custodians Mohsinul Haque and Hasan Ahmed Moin, for interrogation.
The burglary has put the country's largest state-owned commercial bank in terms of branches, deposits and transactions under tremendous pressure.