Mystery over arrest of 11 'bad cops'
The 11 detectives, detained by military police on Tuesday night while taking away four persons by a microbus from a Kafrul club, had allegedly snatched money and valuables from people at the same club around a month ago.
Shafiul Azam, president of New Wave Club, said he informed Kafrul police of the March 16 snatching incident. He also gave them CCTV footage of the incident showing seven to eight people, who are among those captured on Tuesday.
“We sought immediate action against the intruders who we thought were robbers.” The same group again stormed the club on Tuesday evening, robbed people of money and valuables, and took away four persons by a microbus, he said.
Military police stopped the microbus at a checkpoint at Kachukhet in Dhaka Cantonment area around 8:00pm. They detained the 11 team members of the DB Police East, who were taking away the four men, according to witnesses.
Several locals said the club on the third floor of a six-storey building is known for gambling. The club president, however, refuted the allegation.
Talking to this newspaper on Wednesday night, Abdul Baten, joint commissioner of Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the DB team raided the club on information that contraband drug yaba was kept there.
The team was returning after arresting several people and seizing yaba tablets. “When they were stopped by the army, they said they are detectives returning after a raid,” he said.
According to the general dairy (no 1,106) filed by police with Kafrul Police Station on Tuesday night, Senior Assistant Commissioner of the DB Ruhul Amin Sarkar, who led the DB team, identified himself to the military police as Major Mosaddek of Rab-4 after the microbus was intercepted at the checkpoint.
Eight of the 11 DB men were suspended on Wednesday. They are Sub-inspector Zahidul Islam, Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Lutfar Rahman, ASI Mahbubur Rahman, ASI Tofazzal Hossain, Constable Abdul Latif, Azizul Haque, Jahangir Alam Khan and Tawhidul Islam, said police sources.
However, Senior AC Ruhul Amin, Inspector Mohammad Gias Uddin and Constable Zillur Rahman were not suspended.
Police officials said Ruhul and Gias are class-I officers. Since the home ministry is their appointing authority, it's up to the ministry to take action against them.
DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia on Wednesday formed a three-member probe committee, headed by DMP Additional Commissioner Jamil Ahmed, to investigate the incident and asked it to submit a report in three working days.
Two other committee members are Joint Commissioner (Crime) Krishna Pada Roy and Deputy Commissioner of Mirpur Division Masud Ahmed.
Contacted, Masud said they were examining the March 16 CCTV footage, among other things.
Despite repeated attempts, the DMP commissioner couldn't be reached for comments.
This correspondent also called Sikder Shamim Hossain, officer-in-charge of Kafrul Police Station, on his mobile phone several times, but he didn't pick it up.
Club President Shafiul said seven to eight men on March 16 stormed the club, and asked the people there to put all their money and mobile phones on the ground. They even threatened to open fire.
“After taking the money and mobile phones, they took away two persons from the club by a microbus. They forced the two to withdraw Tk 50,000 from an ATM booth, took the money, and then released them.”
The same group of men came to the club on Tuesday evening, snatched money and mobile phones from the people at the club and then took away four persons from there by a microbus, he claimed.
Car driver Sheikh Masum, who was near the club on Tuesday evening, said he saw some 25 to 30 people chase the microbus. They were shouting, “Catch”, “Catch”, “They are taking away money.”
The microbus was moving slowly because of heavy traffic on the road at that time. And the crowd caught up with it at the checkpoint.
A security guard, who also joined the chase, said several people got down from the vehicle and identified themselves as law enforcers to the military police at the checkpoint.
The DB men were detained by military police after the four persons from inside the vehicle shouted that they had been robbed and then picked up.
According to the GD, the military police handed them over to Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Mirpur Division) Mollah Jasim Uddin and ADC of the DB East Division Mukhlesur Rahman. The DB men were released later.