Rab has sent back its 18 members, including a company commander, from its headquarters to Rab-3 hours into their withdrawal over an allegation of “embezzling money” seized during the arrest of four persons in the capital's Mugda on May 14.

ATM Habibur Rahman, director Legal and Media Wing of the elite force, this evening told The Daily Star that some Rab-3 men were attached to the headquarters following some allegations and sent back to the battalion yesterday after some official procedures.

He, however, declined to give any details about the allegations.

Last evening, the Mugda police said they had found inconsistencies between an arrestee's statement and the first information report of a case filed over the seizure of yaba pills and money from the four. 

Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday morning uploaded the news of the Rab men's withdrawal on its online news portal.

But, interestingly, the news was taken off the portal after two hours.

In a brief explanation last night, the DMP said the news was uploaded on the portal based on information from other news portals. It later withdrew the news as it didn't go with DMP's publishing policy.

Meanwhile, the Rab headquarters blamed the DMP for publishing “false news deliberately”.

In a statement last night, it said such news has not only tainted the image of Rab but also demoralised the members of the reputed law enforcement agency.

Rab, however, said some Rab-3 members were attached to the headquarters, which it said is a normal practice for running investigations into allegations against its members.

The latest development happened at a time when three Rab-11 officials face allegations of abduction and murder of the seven people in Narayanganj.