Pallabi Drug Trade: Allegations of bribery rife against cops
Around a week ago, Sub-Inspector Anwarul Islam and Assistant Sub-Inspector Haridas Roy of the capital's Pallabi Police Station arrested a man in Adarsha Nagar on charges of selling cannabis.
They then demanded Tk 2 lakh for his release and threatened that if he failed to pay the bribe, a case would be filed against him on charges of heroin possession.
Speaking to The Daily Star, the arrestee's wife, on the condition of anonymity, said, "I immediately took a Tk 50,000 loan from a local lender with high interest, gave it to the police officers and they eventually filed a case against my husband accusing him of possessing 200gm of cannabis."
She said she was forced to pay the bribe as it takes around a year to secure bail in cases filed over heroin possession.
Like her, around half a dozen locals of Adarsha Nagar have brought up such allegations against SIs Anwarul Islam and Zahiruddin, ASIs Haridas Roy, Abul Kalam Azad and Ferdous Rahman of Pallabi police.
Three workers of the nearby Kalshi graveyard claimed there were many families running small drug businesses in Adarsha Nagar.
Locals across Pallabi claimed the same for their respective areas.
On the pretext of cracking down on the drug trade, the policemen often detain people, sometimes at random; board them in vans and then release them only in exchange for bribes.
Locals further alleged that the drug menace is not leaving Pallabi as the police are gaining from it.
People chose to speak out against the errant cops after a girl died by suicide during a raid where the law enforcers tried to detain her mother from their Pallabi home for allegedly refusing to pay bribe.
On Monday night, Baishakhi Akhter, 16, was found dead in a room on the second floor of the four-storey building owned by their grandparents.
A police officer locked the room from the outside after she threatened to take her own life if her mother was detained, alleged her 11-year-old sister.
During a visit to the house yesterday, this correspondent found family members, relatives and neighbours grieving. They expressed anger towards the police for provoking Baishakhi's death by suicide and demanded justice.
Her mother Lovely Begum said that on Friday a police team, led by SI Anwar, went to their home and told them to pay Tk 50,000. They threatened to implicate the family in a case if they failed to do so. The next day, another police team went there and took Tk 10,000 from them.
Contacted, SIs Anwarul, Zahir, ASI Haripada denied the allegations, terming them "baseless".
Anwar claimed he, SI Mahmudul and ASIs Haripada and Abul Kalam went to the house following a tip-off regarding narcotics possession but did not find any drugs in the house.
"The allegations [against me] are baseless. As a girl died by suicide, they are bringing allegations against police. They [the locals' claims] have no merit. They never said anything before."
On Monday night, a separate team, led by SI Zahir and ASI Ferdous, raided the house and demanded Tk 5 lakh.
"They claimed we run a drug business here. But they did not find any drugs," Lovely said, adding that police threatened to take her away when she refused to pay the money.
However, SI Zahir denied the bribery allegations and said he recovered some drugs from her room.
He sent a video of the raid to this correspondent. In it, Lovely's daughter Chandni was heard saying that a small amount of drugs were recovered. She was also heard begging for her mother's release.
The Daily Star could not independently verify the contents of the video.
Moyna, a tenant of the second floor of the house, said she was not home during the raid.
"When I returned later, I found the lock of my room broken and Tk 6,500 missing from my wardrobe.
"I am a tenant. Why did the cops break into my home without a warrant or permission?" she questioned.
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