Lawyers and onlookers caught a plainclothes police sergeant and his brother trying to kidnap a man at gunpoint on the Supreme Court premises yesterday.

The police sergeant's brother, however, denied having made the kidnap attempt and claimed that they tried to catch the man who owed him Tk 50,000, as he was fleeing at the sight of the sergeant.

Both were turned over to Ramna police who seized the firearm of Traffic Sergeant Mahfuzur Rahman and showed him and his brother Mahbubur Rahman arrested for the abduction attempt.

Mahfuzur, his brother Mah-bubur, a cousin of them and the driver of their car intercepted Ahsanullah Chowdhury, a resident of Dholaikhal, near Bangladesh Bar Council building at around 2:00pm.

"The police sergeant caught me

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by the collar and pointing his pistol at my head, he told me to get in their car," Ahsanullah told reporters.

As Ahsanullah was shouting at the top of his voice, lawyers and people close by rushed to the spot and saw Mahfuzur brandishing his pistol and shouting at the man as they were dragging him towards the vehicle.

The group, meanwhile, shoved Ahsanullah into the car when the lawyers and the people surrounded the car.

Patrol police rushed there on information and asked Mahfuzur to drop his pistol. Mahfuzur introduced himself as an SI (sub-inspector) of Gulshan Police Station. The policemen later asked him to put his pistol in the holster, which he did.

Police and other people took Mahfuzur, his brother and Ahsanullah to the room of Supreme Court Bar Association Secretary Enayetur Rahim. Police seized Mahfuzur's 9mm pistol, two magazines with 16 bullets and other belongings.

"My brother asked me to come here to help him to realise Tk 50,000 which Ahsanullah had taken one and a half months ago for supplying electronic goods," Mahfuzur told reporters.

"I saw him talking with my brother. But seeing me he tried to run away and I caught him," said Mahfuzur, who denied having taken out his pistol.

But a police constable on patrol there said: "I saw him (Mahfuzur) brandishing his pistol at the man (Ahsanullah)."

Talking to The Daily Star later, Mahfuzur said that he is a sergeant of Gulshan zone traffic police and that he was scheduled to start duty at 3:00pm yesterday. Mahfuzur said he lived in Narayanganj town but failed to give the address.

The sergeant's brother told reporters that his brother and he

went to the Supreme Court area as Ahsanullah had told them to return the money there yesterday. But Ahsanullah denied the claim and said he had not seen them before.

Ahsanullah also said he returned two years ago after living for eight years in the US and had gone to the Supreme Court yesterday to meet his lawyers to discuss some cases filed over land dispute.

Mahfuzur's cousin and the driver managed to flee the scene, but the car, the sergeant and his brother were sent to Ramna Police Station.

Ahsanullah filed an attempted abduction case with the police station in the evening.

Mahfuzur and his brother were under Ramna police custody last night.