Why Did Bangladeshi Abu Chowdhury Run Violent Queens Kidnapping Ring?

A federal jury sitting in Brooklyn has convicted 36-year-old Queens resident Abu Chowdhury on three counts of kidnapping and three counts of conspiracy to kidnap, concluding a two-week federal trial before United States District Judge Nina R. Morrison. Chowdhury, a supermarket owner of Bangladeshi origin based in Jamaica, Queens, was prosecuted for orchestrating a violent campaign of targeted abductions, armed torture, and extortion against three members of his own ethnic diaspora between March and May 2023. Announcing the verdict, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York confirmed that Chowdhury now faces a statutory maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Federal prosecutors proved that the syndicate’s first abduction was motivated by an escalating online and financial feud within the Bangladeshi diaspora community. On 27 March 2023, Chowdhury and his co-conspirators ambushed their first victim, John Doe-1, near the intersection of 181st Street and Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The dispute stemmed from mutual financial accusations and public challenges exchanged over social media platform TikTok, where the victim had previously questioned Chowdhury’s local influence and entered into a volatile dispute with co-defendant Sultana Razia.

Chowdhury forced the victim into a Honda sport utility vehicle, where he subjected him to sustained beatings while co-conspirator Ruhel Choudhury drove through the borough. Over the course of a 13-hour ordeal, Chowdhury forced the captive onto a public residential street, stripped him naked, and filmed the degradation while accomplices arrived to participate in physical violence. When the victim begged for drinking water, the group administered liquid laced with sedatives to retain control before releasing him.

The syndicate struck again in May 2023, turning to physical retaliation over personal historical grievances originating in Bangladesh. On 10 May 2023, Chowdhury and his wife, 27-year-old Iffat Lubna, lured John Doe-3 into a vehicle in Queens. Court proceedings demonstrated that Lubna and the victim had attended college together in Bangladesh before emigrating to New York. After Chowdhury made inquiries regarding his wife's collegiate past, he became enraged by the victim's commentary concerning her reputation, triggering a coordinated revenge plot.

The captors transported the victim behind a Queens public school, summoning additional accomplices to carry out an armed assault using metal rods and knives. The victim was bound, gagged, and forced to swallow an incapacitating sedative tablet that caused him to lose consciousness before he was shuttled between illicit holding sites.

The following evening, on 11 May 2023, Chowdhury and Lubna initiated a third abduction driven by financial extortion. The third victim, John Doe-2, was lured outside a restaurant near 72nd Street and Broadway in Jackson Heights under the belief that he was arriving for a social meeting with Lubna. Chowdhury ambushed the man, forced him into a minivan, and transported him to a local hotel where he subjected the captive to severe physical trauma and sexual violation with a weapon. Chowdhury subsequently placed an extortion telephone call to the victim’s father, demanding 20,000 dollars in ransom for his son's life.

The victim was later blindfolded and bound inside a derelict property, but managed to chew through his ligatures, shatter a window, and alert neighbourhood residents to summon emergency police services. Chowdhury also coerced the previously captured student victim into assaulting the ransom captive under threat of further torture.

Daily Dazzling Dawn learned that United States Attorney Nocella condemned the syndicate's operations, noting that the verdict holds the defendant accountable for calculated abductions and torture that endangered the broader community. The conviction of Chowdhury follows the earlier convictions of Lubna on 9 April 2026, alongside co-defendants Syed Rubel Ahmed and Sultana Razia on 26 June 2026. Daily Dazzling Dawn understands that all convicted co-conspirators are currently held awaiting formal sentencing in Brooklyn federal court, where each faces up to life imprisonment.