Bangladesh govt suspends top cop over bribe collection

The home ministry yesterday suspended Zillur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Barisal Metropolitan Police (BMP), after he was found involved in the creation of a joint bribe fund to quicken the promotion of 230 Barisal cops.

The ministry issued the order as a primary police investigation revealed that Zillur encouraged and allured low-rank policemen to collect money to bribe “higher officials” for promotion.

Upon the internal inquiry, the Inspector General of Police recommended the suspension, said a police headquarters release yesterday.

“The action was taken against Zillur for breaching discipline, corruption, misconduct and damaging the image of the police department,” it added.

Zillur was attached to the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Sylhet Range, reads the home ministry order, signed by Senior Home Secretary Mozammel Haque Khan.

The DC's suspension came days after 10 lower-level BMP cops were suspended over the allegation.

Each of the 230 Barisal police members contributed between Tk 30,000 and 50,000 and created a joint fund of around Tk 77 lakh. The money was to be given to “top officials” to speed up their promotion, due since last October.

Of the money, Tk 17 lakh was deposited to a joint account of ASI Anisuzzaman, Nayek Kabir Hossain and driver Bablu at a Dutch-Bangla Bank branch in Barisal.

They handed the rest of the money over to Zillur to “manage” their promotion.

"Zillur admitted to have raised the fund. He said he already bribed some officials in three ministries concerned Tk 7 lakh to help create posts and then ensure the promotion," a top police official told The Daily Star, wishing anonymity.

The official added that Zillur admitted that he still had Tk 50 lakh of the money, but could not say where the rest 3 lakh was.

The 230 BMP cops, who passed the promotion test in October 2014, were desperate for elevation because they would have to take the test again if they were not promoted by December 31 this year.

Last year, 15,000 cops of different levels were handed down different punishments for breaking service codes and committing criminal offence. The number was 14,500 the previous year, records at the police HQ show.

In the six months this year, over 5,500 police members have been punished.

The punishments include work without pay for a certain time, forced retirement, work without promotion and firing, said an official.

“We maintain a zero-tolerance strategy for criminals. If any police official commits any criminal act or corruption, he will not be considered as police… Departmental actions will be taken against those breaking discipline,” said Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque.

Meanwhile, BMP Commissioner Shaibal Kanti Chowdhury refuted parts of his Tuesday's remarks published in The Daily Star yesterday.

Talking to our Barisal correspondent yesterday, he said the accused collected money which was wrong and that everything would be clear after the investigation.

“But I did not tell anything about ministries during my conversation with the correspondent in this regard,” he said.