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Feds: NYC Bengali kidnappers threatened to pour chili powder in victim's wounds

John Annese, New York Daily News on

Published in News & Features

A Queens kidnapping ring that targeted fellow members of the Bengali community tortured one victim for spreading gossip about the ringleader’s wife, new court documents reveal.

Supermarket owner Abu Chowdhury, 35, his wife, Iffat Lubna, 24 — already accused in a pair of brutal kidnappings — were hit with new charges earlier this month alleging a third abduction.

The newly revealed victim was held against his will and beaten for four days during which the couple sliced open his palms and threatened to pour chili powder in the wounds, according to prosecutors.

Even after the kidnapping ended the victim had no choice but to keep living with his attackers for weeks because they refused to give up his passport and belongings and he had nowhere else to stay, the feds say.

Chowdhury and Lubna are charged alongside six co-conspirators in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The new details were spelled out in court filings on Dec. 18 following the most recent arrest in the case.

The 23-year-old “John Doe” victim arrived in the U.S. from Bangladesh in April 2023 and trusted Lubna, a college acquaintance, to help him make a life for himself in Queens, according to the feds.

He befriended Chowdhury, who at the time was Lubna’s boyfriend, and when he “was suddenly left without a roommate, he turned to Lubna,” according to court papers.

Lubna gave him a place to stay at her apartment but demanded the rest of his money, his passport, his immigration paperwork and his diploma from Bangladesh, supposedly for safekeeping, the feds said.

On May 10, 2023, Chowdhury and Lubna turned on the victim, accusing him of spreading rumors about Lubna’s reputation in college, the feds say. And that’s when John Doe went from roommate to kidnapping victim.

The couple locked him in Chowdhury’s SUV, punched and beat him, and threatened to plunge a screwdriver in his ear and eyes if he tried to run, the fed allege.

They demanded he go back to Bangladesh because he didn’t deserve to live in the U.S. and forced him to call his dad for money to buy a plane ticket, prosecutors say.

That wasn’t the end of it. They brought him to Lubna’s apartment, beat him, forced him into the SUV again took him to a spot in Hillside, Queens, the feds charge. Chowdhury made a phone call to a man named, “Shah,” asking him to bring salt, chili powder a rod and a knife, according to the feds.

 

Shah is Shaidhual Chowdhury, who the feds arrested earler this month, prosecutors say.

He met up with the couple in Hillside and the three of them bound and gagged the victim, threatening to sodomize, cripple and kill him, according to prosecutors.

They beat him with a baseball bat and a rod and at one point sliced open his palms and threatened to pour chili powder and salt into the wounds, according to shocking court filings.

Abu Chowdhury recorded about three hours of the ordeal on his cell phone, prosecutors allege, as all three threatened and tortured the victim while he begged for them to stop.

“Don’t shout, don’t shout. If you shout, then I will cut you here. Didn’t I tell you? I will make you agonize then send you home,” Abu Chowdhury said, according to the feds. “I’m going to make you crippled. I’ll break your legs. I’ll smash your bones.”

Lubna also made sure the victim knew she meant business, the feds allege, telling him, “No, I will see this to the end. You will die in front of me, and only then will I find peace. … You will die. You will die in front of me. I will kill you. You can’t make a sound.”

They drugged the man and held him until May 13, 2023, when they finally set him free, but even then the victim was stuck with his kidnappers, who had his belongings and passport. Abu Chowdhury threatened to kill him and burn the body if he talked and showed up at his job to intimidate him, the feds allege.

Abu Chowdhury, who co-owns the BD Fresh Supermarket in Jamaica, and Lubna were indicted in a similar kidnapping in July 2023 and last January they were charged with a second abduction. They were hit with charges in the third abduction in a superseding indictment earlier this month.

The allegations in those other two kidnappings are similarly disturbing — the conspirators allegedly drugged both of those hostages, abducting one just a day after they grabbed the chili powder victim. Chowdhury allegedly sodomized that victim in a hotel, called the man’s father demanding $20,000, then left the son in an abandoned house, where the victim chewed through his bonds to escape. And Chowdhury was previously accused of forcing another of the kidnap ring’s victims to strip naked while Chowdhury filmed the man in the street.

Abu Chowdhury and Lubna remain free on $250,000 and $100,000 bond. His lawyer didn’t return a message seeking comment and hers declined comment.

Shaidhual Chowdhury was arraigned Wednesday and ordered held on $150,000 bond. His lawyer didn’t return a call seeking comment.


©2024 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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