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After leading the high-profile murder case of a Bangladeshi Hindu police officer, Animesh Sarkar, with a major breakthrough, the key accused, Md. Rakib Hossain, was detained by the Delhi Police Crime Branch at Indira Gandhi International Airport (Terminal 3) on February 19, 2026, when he was about to flee to Dubai by boarding an aircraft of a private airline.

Animesh Sarkar was a murderer and a 32-year-old sub-inspector in the Bangladesh Police who was shot in broad daylight on January 28, 2026, in his home neighborhood, Mirpur, Dhaka. The murder is outrageous in Bangladesh, particularly to the minority Hindu group, since Sarkar has been fair in dealing with communal cases and has been receiving several threats from extremist groups after arresting a few suspects in an investigation into a recent communal violence case.

The police in Bangladesh soon pointed out Rakib Hossain, a 29-year-old Bangladeshi national who is allegedly linked to a radical group, as the chief shooter. The Red Notice issued by Interpol came a few days after it was known that Rakib had escaped days ago (January 29) in Dhaka on a fake passport and that he had, in the last three weeks, been without trace in Delhi.

Based on certain intelligence information from the Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the external intelligence of India, a combined force of the Delhi Police Crime Branch and the Immigration Bureau set up a trap at the IGI Airport Terminal 3. At approximately 2:15 PM, Rakib was caught at the immigration counter trying to board a Dubai-bound flight with a forged Bangladeshi passport with a different name, known as Rahim Khan.

The arrest was ratified by Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay. Arora:

The most wanted person in the murder of SI Animesh Sarkar is Rakib Hossain. He was intending on fleeing to the Middle East. Coupled with superb liaison with the Bangladeshi government and our immigration units, we managed to arrest him prior to his departure out of the nation.

Rakib is detained under the applicable provisions of the Indian Penal Code (among them, 302 murder) and the Passport Act against the use of forged documents. He is already in police custody, where he will be brought before a court in Delhi to be subjected to transit remand. In the next days, a formal extradition request should be received by Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, the detention is quite welcome, as the minority groups were accusing the government of not protecting the minority. The arrest itself was described by Sarkar as a beacon of hope by his family for a deeper investigation of the matter, which they saw as a grateful appreciation by Indian authorities.

The case has once again shown that cooperation at the cross-border level in fighting organized crime and extremism takes place, despite the occasional strain in diplomatic relations. There are investigations into whether or not there were any local handlers or support networks that could have been available to Rakib during his stay in Delhi.