SI Belal suspended

The police authorities yesterday suspended Sub-inspector Belal of Detective Branch of police in Cox's Bazar for his alleged involvement in Yaba smuggling.

Confirming the suspension, Tofail Ahmed, additional superintendent of police in Cox's Bazar, told The Daily Star that Belal went into hiding soon after Rapid Action Battalion arrested ASI Mahfuzur Rahman of Special Branch (SB) of police, Dhaka, and his driver Jabed Ali on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, a Feni court yesterday placed ASI Mahfuzur on a three-day and Jabed on a two-day remand in connection with a case filed for smuggling Yaba.

The Court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Alamgir Mohammad Faruqui placed them on remand after investigators sought a 10-day remand for each, reports a Feni correspondent.

Rab handed the duo over to the Feni police on Sunday night. Later, a Rab official filed a case with Feni Model Police Station, accusing the two for smuggling narcotics.

A team of Rab-7 arrested Mahfuzur, 35, and Jabed, 29, and seized around 6.8 lakh pieces of Yaba tablets worth Tk 27 crore from a car on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Feni on Saturday night.

They were carrying the Yaba pills in a black Toyota Allion car, believed to be owned by Mahfuzur's father, from Cox's Bazar to Dhaka, Rab officials said.

The elite force claimed Mahfuzur admitted to them that he was a member of a smuggling syndicate of several unscrupulous policemen, including SI Belal.

The syndicate members are from Special Branch (SB) of police in Dhaka, Chittagong district range police, and Detective Branch (DB) of police in Cox's Bazar.

They were using their professional identity as shield for their illicit trade, Rab officials claimed.