The FBI has announced a $20,000 reward for the arrest of Ruhel Chowdhury, a member of a Bangladeshi gang involved in the kidnapping, torture, sexual assault, and ransom threats to two foreigners in New York.
The FBI released a poster on March 1 to hand over the 34-year-old Bangladeshi. The news has also been published in the US mainstream media. Police are looking for Ruhel Chowdhury for his involvement in two incidents of kidnapping and torture on March 27 and May 11, 2023. Earlier, six people were arrested for their involvement in those two incidents; all of them are Bangladeshis.
In one of these incidents, Jamaican Abu Choudhury (34) and his wife Iffat Lubna (24) were arrested. After their arrest, they got bail, but the prosecutors appealed to cancel it. Sultana Razia, Syed Rubel Ahmed (43), Shahed Alam (29), and Anju Khan (28) were arrested in another incident. Sultana Razia on a $50,000 bond and Syed Rubel Ahmed on a $10,000 bond were released on bail, but Shahed Alam and Anju Khan were detained.
According to the FBI, Ruehl drove the cars for others in the gang in addition to supplying cars for the kidnapping, sexual assault, and extortion of ransom of helpless expats in the Queens area of New York City. Although he works as a broker for an old car dealer, he is involved in crimes like kidnapping, robbery, theft, and robbery.
Born in Bangladesh on February 9, 1990, Ruhel lived in Hollis, Queens Village, and Jamaica. Anyone who sees him is asked to report it to the nearest FBI office, US embassy, or consulate, the FBI poster said. A $20,000 reward has also been offered to the finder.
According to the details of the case, after abducting an expatriate from Jamaica, Queens, on March 27 last year, the gang tortured them for about 14 hours. Abu Chowdhury forced the man into a Honda SUV from the road in Jamaica’s 181 Street and Hillside Avenue area. After picking up the expatriate in the car, he started beating him. Ruhel was driving the car at that time.
At one point, the abductors forced the man out of the car and made him stand naked on the road. Abu Chowdhury videoed the scene on his phone. Ruhel Chowdhury, Syed Rubel Ahmed, Saheed Alam, Anju Khan, and Sultana Razia also took part in this torture. The man was tortured inside the moving car throughout the night. At one point, when he asked for water, the kidnappers gave him water laced with anesthetic. He lost consciousness after drinking it. The next day, he found himself in a local hospital.
Another incident of abduction took place on May 11 last year in the Woodside area of Queens. Lubna picked up a Bangladeshi expatriate in the area of 72nd Street and Broadway in Woodside. Lubna’s husband, Abu Chowdhury, was already there. He forced the expatriate into a minivan and started beating him. Ruhel was also driving that minivan. He drove the expatriate to a hotel. Abu Chowdhury raped the person there. Later, Abu Chowdhury called the victim’s father and demanded a ransom of 20,000 dollars. The victim was beaten during the phone call so that her father could hear her screaming. Abu Chowdhury threatened his father that if this incident is reported to the police, they will not find his son, and he will also be killed.
The expatriate’s father refused to pay the ransom, prosecutors told the court. Three days after the abduction, the victim was left handcuffed and blindfolded in an abandoned house in Jamaica. After the victim cut the rope with his teeth and freed himself, he broke the window and asked the residents to call 911.
In July last year, charges were framed against Abu Chowdhury and Lubna in this case. The rest were arrested and appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court on January 11 of this year. If Ruhel is arrested, charges will be framed against all of them.
