Dhaka: Jahangir Alam alias Rajib Gandhi, a top Neo-JMB leader and one of the masterminds of the Gulshan terror attack, reportedly made confession before a court in Dhaka on Monday.

Metropolitan Magistrate Ahsan Habib recorded the confessional statement of Rajib after Mohammad Humayun Kabir, an inspector of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit and also the investigation officer (IO) of the case filed over the terror attack, produced Rajib before the court on completion of his eight-day remand, court officials said.

On 14 January, a Dhaka court placed him on police custody for quizzing in the case.

Earlier, Chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit Monirul Islam said Rajib Gandhi was an associate of Neo-JMB chief Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury, who died in law enforcer’s raid in Narayanganj.

Monirul said Rajib Gandhi was the frontrunner of twenty-two recent killings of Hindu priests in several districts of North Bengal, Christian and foreigners, attack on Shia mosque, and murder attempts.

A CTTC team in a drive arrested Rajib from Elenga bus stand area of Tangail on the night of 13 January.

On 1 July 2016, seven gunmen entered the Holey Artisan Bakery in the capital’s Gulshan area and took hostage around 40 people, including restaurant staff and guests, both locals and foreigners.

Twenty hostages, including 17 foreign nationals, were killed by militants, while five militants and one suspected associate of the attackers were killed during a commando operation in the café on 2 July.