Unbecoming of a police officer
The police officer first grabbed the collar of his shirt and started slapping him in the neck.
Talking over the phone with a piece of paper in hand, the man seemed perplexed.
The officer then pinned him to the ground and started kicking him.
Seeing it, eight to 10 youths came forward to rescue the man, but the officer tried to drag him to another place grabbing him by the collar.
This is how Sergeant Mehedi Hasan of traffic (south division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) beat Mohammad Yusuf, a private car driver, on Saturday afternoon.
The incident happened around 5:30pm near the KFC outlet at Dhanmondi 7/A in the capital, according to police and locals.
A one and a half-minute mute video clip of the incident went viral on Facebook yesterday, and demands for punishment of the police official poured in.
Sergeant Mehedi was “closed” temporarily and police were inquiring into the incident, said Khan Muhammad Rezowan, deputy commissioner (DC) of traffic (south division) of DMP. If found guilty, the sergeant will face departmental action, he told The Daily Star.
Arif Ahmed, owner of the car, said Yusuf went to Dhanmondi to drop his son. A resident of Gulshan, Arif admitted that his driver had parked the car illegally.
The driver requested the officer not to file a case and allow him to leave the area, he said, adding that instead doing his duty, he harassed the driver, Arif told The Daily Star over the phone.
Sergeant Mehedi said he was clearing the road because it was gridlocked very often.
He claimed that he already filed a number of cases against a few cars for illegal parking. When he approached to Yusuf, he refused to cooperate and tried to threaten him, he added.
He, however, admitted that he could not keep his cool and it was wrong to slap and kick him.
About pinning the driver to the ground, the sergeant said he was trying to arrest him.
Dhanmondi police said the driver and the sergeant altercated over filing a case for illegal parking.
The driver was rude and refused to cooperate, provoking the sergeant into slapping him, said a police official, seeking anonymity.
Locals said the driver had been taken to the nearby traffic police box and beaten up there.
“The sergeant should have filed a case against the driver if he was found guilty of illegal parking. He could have sent him to jail for further offence. But why was he beaten after being pinned to the ground?” one Ariful Islam commented on the Facebook video clip.
Sub-inspector Palash Chandra Mandal of Dhanmondi Police Station said he reached the spot around 6:00pm and found driver Yusuf at the nearby traffic police box.
He said both the officer and the driver were taken to Dhanmondi Police Station after the incident, and the two settled their problem there, the SI added.