Offences aplenty, punishment rare

Mohammad Alauddin, a manpower businessman, was waiting for a friend at a tea stall at Mollartek in Dakkhin Khan around 4:30pm on November 10.

An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of police accompanied by an informant approached him while he was counting some money.

The officer searched him and found Tk 40,000 on him. He then forced Alauddin into a nearby tea stall where a sub-inspector and three other policemen were waiting.

“The SI took away Tk 35,000 from me and told me to forget about the money otherwise I would be framed in a narcotics case,” Alauddin told The Daily Star recently.

Alauddin was lucky to get some of the money back after he complained to a senior police officer.

The businessman, however, did not disclose the identity of the policemen who robbed him as he did not want more trouble from the law enforcers.

This incident did not make it to the media.

Alauddin's case is just one of many in which unscrupulous lower-tier policemen extort money from innocent people.

However, about a dozen cases of police brutality and bribery came to light in the last couple of months, denting people's trust in the force.

Officials at the police headquarters recently admitted that the “IGP complaint cell” received about 45 allegations against policemen a day. Most of those detail how some law enforcers have become downright criminals.

Before November 14, when the cell received only written complaints and that too during office hours, the number of allegations recorded was just a handful. Now the cell receives grievances online round the clock.

The allegations are aplenty. The list goes on from mugging on the streets to framing youths with yaba pills to abducting businessmen for ransom to torturing suspects in custody and relaying their screams over mobile phone to families for collecting hefty sums, according to officials at the Discipline and Professional Standard wing of the police headquarters.

Crimes like extorting street hawkers and collecting tolls from rickshaw-pullers on streets off-limit to slow-moving vehicles are apparently not even reported.

A number of constables, SIs and inspectors wishing anonymity said one of the main reasons for corruption at the lower-tier of the police force is that many of them get their jobs by paying bribes of huge amounts. The job of a constable could be had for Tk 6-7 lakh and an SI for Tk-15 lakh, they said.

They believe the money they paid as bribe is an investment and need to resort to corruption to recoup, the policemen said.

Even the ones who got their job without bribing anyone have to “spend a lot to keep their higher authorities appeased and to get promotion and desired postings”, the law enforcers claimed.

For promotions and lucrative postings, there were instances in which field-level policemen created common funds to grease the palms of high-ups.

“Some indulge in corruption just because or to have a more comfortable life,” said an inspector seeking anonymity.

The money obtained illegally by the low-tier policemen is shared among high ups, said the former and incumbent policemen who talked to this paper.

Worried about the corruption and criminal activities, chief Javed Patwari of Special Branch of police raised the issue at a quarterly crime conference in October. He asked force members to stay away from crimes as it dwarfed the achievements of police. 

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Abdul Alim Mahmud of the police headquarters claimed that whenever they received a complaint against any policeman, they investigate and if found guilty they take stern departmental actions.

Sahely Ferdous, assistant inspector general (media) of the police headquarters, said, “Whenever any complaint reaches our desk, we take stern action against the offenders; no matter who the person is.”

According to the headquarters' statistics, stern departmental actions were taken against 13,586 policemen last year, which is about 1,132 per month on average. Until September of this year, stern actions were taken against 10,821 (1,202 per month on average) policemen.

Ironically, most of the “stern” punishments are limited to withdrawals or transfers. Suspensions, demotions and terminations are very rare. Some who do get fired sometimes get their jobs back following court orders.

Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International, Bangladesh, said, “Exemplary punishment is hardly ever handed down. Offenders are also aware that they would get back all facilities after serving the light punishment.”

He insisted that violation of law by law enforcers could not be contained if the offenders were let go with meaningless punishment. 

Nur Mohammad, former inspector general of police, said, “The force has an intelligence wing, the Police Internal Oversight (PIO), to keep watch on field-level officials and policemen. It sends reports regularly but hardly any action is taken.

“Had there been action taken based on PIO reports, there would be a fear among the field-level policemen,” he added.

The problems within the police force are deep rooted, starting with recruitment, promotions to postings, said some serving and ex-police officials while talking to The Daily Star.

Asked why police members indulge in corruption and crime, they said one reason is that they have to pay hefty sums to get the jobs and good posts. Besides, political backing and hobnobbing with senior police officials also give them a sense of invincibility.

“We often hear that lower-tier policemen are being recruited in exchange for money … Coming out of training [it's only natural that] he would push yaba or arms in the pockets of people to recover the money,” said ex-IGP Nur Mohammad.

In July 2015, Zillur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Barisal Metropolitan Police (BMP), made headlines by setting up a common bribe fund to speed up promotion of 230 policemen of Barisal, who each contributed between Tk 30,000 and Tk 50,000 to the fund.

He along with 10 other lower-level Barisal Policemen was suspended after a probe found them guilty.

Zillur, who was attached to the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Sylhet Range following his suspension, is now serving as the Superintendent of Police of Tourism Police.

Nur Mohammad believes transparency in hiring, training, posting and promotion could greatly help the force. To improve the situation, the supervising officers should also keep an eye on subordinates and take account of their daily activities.

Graft watchdog leader Iftekharuzzaman sees the constant political exploitation of police in every step as the prime reason for their professionalism getting ruined. “Moral turpitude, irregularity and corruption did not appear suddenly.”