Staff Reporter :
Cyber crime expert Tanvir Hassan Zoha returned to his 18/3 Kalabagan Lake Circus residence early Wednesday after one week of his missing. “In police van, plainclothes police along with Zoha arrived at Kalabagan Lake Circus residence at about 1.30am on Wednesday and left Zoha there,” Zoha’s uncle Mahbubul Alam told journalists the same day.
He said that, the law enforcers told him that Zoha was found loitering on the Airport Road in Dhaka on Tuesday night. “As Zoha’s pictures were published in different national dailies, police rescued him from the airport road and dropped him at his residence,” quoting law enforcers Mahbubul Alam said.
Zoha went missing on March 16 and his personal cell phone was found switched off following his statement to the media in connection with $101 heist of Bangladesh Bank. He was reportedly member of the investigation team into the Bangladesh Bank fund heist. After the incident, Zoha talked to the media over the issue.
Zoha’s uncle Mahbubul Alam said plainclothes police found Zoha wandering in the Airport area and then took him to his residence after confirming his identity around 1:30 am. Zoha is now physically week and taking rest in a safe place, he said. “We couldn’t talk to him yet,” he said.
Zoha’s family alleged that police did not cooperate when they had approached several police stations after his abduction from Dhaka Cantonment area in the wee hours of March 17.
Zoha’s wife Kamrun Nahar Chowdhury claimed that he was abducted from Kachukhet area around 1am.
On that night, Zoha’s uncle Mahbubul Alam claimed that Zoha went to the office of an intelligence agency from where he phoned his friend Yamir Ahmed to accompany him on the way to his residence.
Quoting Yamir, Mahbubul said: “Zoha and Yamir hired a CNG-run autorickshaw, but it went out of order after two minutes. Then two microbuses blocked them and took away. But Yamir was dropped in the Manik Mia Avenue.”
Later, Yamir informed Zoha’s family about his “abduction.”
However, none of the security and intelligence agencies admitted of picking up Zoha, who had identified himself as a cyber security specialist for the ICT Division, while speaking to media on the $81 million Bangladesh Bank cyber heist. But as the government body soon denied any links with him, Zoha said he used to work at the ICT Division.
The transfer of $81 million from the Bangladesh Bank account maintained with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to the Philippines by hackers drew international media attention after Philippines’ Daily Inquirer broke the news on Feb 29.
Bangladesh Bank officials learnt of the heist, which took place in the first week of February, almost immediately, but withheld the information for about a month.
