Subrata Bain, a top criminal on Interpol's "Most Wanted List", was among those released from RAB's TFI Cell between 6 and 7 August 2024, the Commission on Enforced Disappearance has found.
The shocking disclosure came in the report titled "Unfolding the Truth: A structural diagnosis of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh", published on 4 June.
Bain is a notorious Bangladeshi criminal implicated in numerous serious offences, including murder, extortion, and abduction.
His web of crime transcended national boundaries, and according to the commission's findings, he was involved in a secret, illegal personnel exchange with India in 2022.
In other words, a dangerous criminal was detained in the country and subsequently released, with the general public completely in the dark.
Bain was listed among the 23 most wanted criminals by the Bangladesh government in 2001 and has long been the subject of an Interpol red notice.
For years, Bain successfully evaded law enforcement and ran an empire spanning nations.
In a famous incident back in 2012, he is said to escape from a Nepalese jail by digging a tunnel.
While he was arrested multiple times in India, including in Kolkata, he managed to secure bail.
Who is Subrata Bain?
For those in the know, Subrata Bain isn't just a gangster – he is the emblem of what happens when politics, crime, and impunity meet.
His ability to operate across borders, maintain powerful networks, and repeatedly evade law enforcement highlights the challenges faced by states in dismantling deeply entrenched criminal systems.
For many in Dhaka, he is not just a gangster, but a symbol of how crime becomes institutionally embedded in systems meant to uphold justice.
Bain — also known by aliases such as Trimati Subrata Bain and Fateh Ali — has over the years become one of the most infamous underworld figures.
His name has appeared in cases of extortion, arms smuggling, contract killings and even political manipulation.
Born in 1967 at Holy Family Hospital in Dhaka, Subrata was the eldest of four children in a modest Hindu family.
Growing up, he attended a good school and even went on to enrol in college, where he was first exposed to goons disguised as political leaders.
By the 90s, he had founded his own gang in Moghbazar, going on to form the notorious Seven Star Group.
Bain was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment over the murder of a student leader in 1991, but the long arm of the law could never quite reach him.
Over time, his name became attached to over 30 murder cases.
In 2001, the Bangladesh government issued an Interpol red notice for Subrata Bain, listing him among the country's top 23 terrorists, complete with a bounty on his head.
Within two years, he fled to India, where his fugitive life began. He was arrested in Kolkata in 2008, but surprisingly got bail.
A year later, he was apprehended in Nepal and imprisoned. In 2012, he escaped from jail through a tunnel— a move that only cemented his devious legacy.
Over the next few years, Subrata was a ghost. People saw his apparitions, but he disappeared before any action could be taken: dust in the wind.
Enter 2022
According to the commission report, at the end of April 2022, following yet another arrest in India, Bain was handed over to RAB Intelligence Wing as part of a secret, illegal prisoner exchange programme operated between Indian and Bangladeshi intelligence agencies.
In return for receiving Bain, Bangladesh, via RAB Intelligence Wing, handed over one of its own citizens, who had been kept imprisoned at the TFI Cell, to its Indian counterpart, the report said.
After arriving in India, a case was filed against him, and he served a jail term there before returning to Bangladesh.
"His [the Bangladeshi handed over to India] presence in India was confirmed through Indian case documents he supplied to us. His captivity inside the TFI cell was corroborated by a fellow detainee who had seen him there and learnt his name. It was only after tracing this arc that we discovered that he was the person who had been exchanged for Bain."
Bain complained of being brought to Bangladesh on 27 Ramadan 2022, according to the report, a copy of which has been obtained by Dhaka Stream.
"This date matched the Indian case documents we saw, which confirmed the timeline of events. While held at TFI, Bain developed a range of illnesses, including piles, but appeared resigned to not retaining any contact with the outside world," the report said.
The commission said even officers who served at the TFI used to avoid meeting him.
"Contrary to rumours circulating online, we have found no indication at all that he was receiving any form of training during his stay at TFI. Instead, he appears to have led a secluded life of captivity."
Since his release, however, he reportedly re-established his criminal empire, secured a wealthy patron with strong political connections, and resumed ordering killings, the report said.
According to various media reports, on 21 April this year, Arif Sardar, a member of the Ward Jubo Dal, was shot dead by Bain's followers in Hatirjheel.
Finally, on May 27, the Bangladesh Army arrested four criminals, including Subrata Bain. Subrata Bain alias Fateh Ali and his associate Molla Masud alias Abu Russell Masud were arrested from Kushtia district on specific intelligence information, the BSS reported.
"Prior to his arrest at the end of May 2025, law enforcement agencies were struggling to apprehend him. This case raises significant concerns and illustrates the systemic consequences of enforced disappearance as a practice," the commission report said.
Case with a lasting legacy
Pointing out that the orders to detain someone of such high international notoriety could not have originated from RAB, the commission went on to highlight why the incident was revealing.
"Beyond ascertaining that he was kept in near isolation during the entire period at RAB's TFI Cell, we cannot definitively speculate on why Bain was never formally charged.
"One possible reason is that his illegal transfer complicated his legal status and made formal prosecution politically or diplomatically difficult. Another is that Indian agencies, with whom RAB Intelligence Wing retained close ties until the very end [when the AL regime was ousted], might have influenced the decision for their own gains."
It concluded that the level of secrecy, illegality, and informal manoeuvring had not strengthened Bangladesh's domestic security system.
"In fact, it has likely weakened it. That is the lasting lesson of this case."
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