Members of the Rapid Action Team (Rat) planted themselves near the Road No 32 bridge and ambushed a private car carrying Liakot, one of the 23 most wanted criminals in Dhaka, at about 4:00pm.

Liakot was going to Dhanmondi by a Toyota Vista car to realise the money that he had earlier demanded from a businessman, Rat officials said.

The team also arrested Liakot's bodyguard Shohag Sardar and driver Badal Hawlader in the spot. Later, the Rat members raided Liakot's den in Eskaton and arrested Jibon. However, they could not recover any firearms till 9:00pm, despite conducting raids on different places.

The home ministry had announced a reward of Tk 1 lakh for his arrest. Liakot fled to India immediately after the announcement.

Kolkata police arrested Liakot, his second-in-command Arman Khan and four others from Kolkata New Market area on November 19, 2002 with two Italian-made 9mm pistols.

Liakot has nine cases and four GD entries against him in Motijheel, Tejgaon, Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur and Gulshan police stations.

He is one of the accused in the armed attack on a procession at the Malibagh intersection on February 13, 2001 in which four people were killed. He is also an accused in one attempt-to-murder case, two arms cases and four cases of robbery.

Deputy Commissioner of Rat Mazharul Hoque said they had an intelligence that Liakot entered the country from India about a month back and since then they were trying to trace him.

"Through our intelligence we learned that Liakot demanded money from a businessman in Dhanmondi nearly a week ago. We deployed our teams in all roads leading to the businessman's office," he said.

Son of Momin Uddin Hawlader of village Crokerchar at Shibchar upazila in Madaripur district, Liakot took to student politics when he was a resident student of Sergeant Zahurul Haq Hall of Dhaka University in the 80s. He was a leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), police said.

Later, he became the ringleader of the so-called Five Star Group and earned a huge amount of money. He and his gang used to collect tolls from Eskaton, Moghbazar, Ramna, Bhutergoli, Hatirpool, Elephant Road and Dhanmondi areas.