Seven Bangladeshi Americans Indicted for Two Separate Violent Kidnappings in Queens

A federal grand jury in Brooklyn indicted seven Bangladeshi Americans for two alleged kidnappings in the Queens borough of New York City. Abu Chowdhury, 34, and his wife Iffat Lubna, 24, have been charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to abduct two men in an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court on Jan. 11, which also named co-defendants Syed Rubel Ahmed, 43, Shahed Alom, 29, and Anzu Khan, 28, all from Jamaica, in addition to 38-year-old Sultana Razia of Woodside as members of the kidnapping ring.

“As alleged, the defendants carried out acts of brutal physical and sexual assault of the victims,” stated Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.  “The defendants allegedly exploited their shared ethnic background with the victims in furtherance of the crimes.”

According to the indictment, on Mar. 27, 2023, Ahmed, Alom, Chowdhury, Khan and a co-conspirator who remains at large, abducted and assaulted a man who had been walking in the vicinity of 181st Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica. Over the course of 14 hours the victim was filmed naked standing on a residential street, beaten and threatened with death. When the victim begged for water from the kidnappers, the defendants gave him water laced with a sedative. The victim later lost consciousness and woke up in a local hospital the day after he had been abducted.

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A few months later, on May 11, 2023, Chowdhury and Lubna abducted and assaulted a different victim who had been waiting to meet Lubna outside a restaurant in Woodside, Queens. Chowdhury forced the victim into a minivan and began beating him. During the course of the kidnapping, he, along with Lubna and a co-conspirator took the victim to a hotel, where Chowdhury allegedly sodomized him. He also made a ransom call to the victim’s father, demanding $20,000 for the victim’s safety. On the third day of the kidnapping, Chowdhury tied up and blindfolded the victim, leaving him at an abandoned house. The victim was able to free himself by chewing through his restraints, breaking open a window and asking residents in the neighborhood to call 911.