19 cops suspended, probe begins

Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday suspended all 19 members of Pashchim Bhashantek Police Outpost for allegations that they had been maintaining warm relations with local goons.

While making the decision, the DMP authorities also considered their failure in arresting the perpetrators who killed Nasir Hossain in the area in the early hours of Saturday for protesting the stalking of his cousin, case statement says. 

A three-member committee has been formed to investigate the allegations against the policemen and also to find why they failed to arrest the killers, said Nisarul Arif, deputy commissioner (Mirpur division) of DMP. 

“If they are found guilty, departmental actions will be taken against them,” he added.

Mamun, 27, along with four of his cohorts -- Bablu, “Kana” Alam, Khokon and Chukka -- verbally abused Laboni, 15, in the capital's Bhashantek on Friday afternoon, Nasir's brother Mosharraf said in the statement of the case he filed with Bhashantek Police Station following the murder.

Being apprised of the incident, Nasir warned the gang members of legal action for harassing his cousin further. The gang members then beat him dead. 

Mosharraf accused seven named, including the five, and four to five unnamed people in the murder case.

The killers have been roaming freely in the area but the police are not arresting them, said one of the witnesses to the incident, wishing not to be named in fear of reprisals.

Mamun, who is also accused in five other cases, was detained on Friday afternoon and then released minutes  later, an inhabitant of the Bhashantek slum said, adding that within hours of his release he and his gang committed the murder. 

He is the prime accused in a case filed over the barbaric torture of a pregnant woman and 10 others of her family in the slum in February.

Mamun's wife Nasima Akhter said he had stayed in Gazipur after the incident and returned to the area a week before Eid-ul-Azha.

"My husband is a drug addict. If he indeed is such a notorious criminal, why the police are not arresting him?”

Their neighbours said Mamun had recently committed several crimes in the area in collusion with the police.