Tk 150 fine, 5 days’ drill for cop who shot a man!

"As soon as we stopped, a constable walked up to me with a firearm, and shot me on my right foot without saying a word."

— VICTIM SHAHADAT HOSSAIN SHYAMOL

On a night in March 2019, Shahadat Hossain Shyamol and three of his friends were returning to their hometown in Keraniganj from Munshiganj on three motorcycles.

When police signalled them to stop at Kamarkanda police checkpoint in Sirajdikhan, the motorcycle at the front drove on, and Shyamol, whose bike was next, stopped.  

"As soon as we stopped, a constable walked up to me with a firearm, and shot me in my right foot without saying a word," Shyamol said, describing the incident that took place on March 14 five years ago.

"I felt an excruciating pain and fell to the ground with my motorcycle. I was bleeding profusely. I asked the constable, whose name I later learned was Saiful, why he had shot me and what my fault was. He replied, 'Go to a hospital and save yourself. Then we will find what your fault is.'"

Shyamol worked at an AC repair shop in Keraniganj and was aged 20 at the time.

His friends Sajib and Rakib, who were on the third motorcycle, were only a few metres behind and saw their friend get shot.

Rakib said, "I first covered Shyamol's wound with a piece of cloth. And then called our friends Gobinda and Johnny, whom we met earlier in the evening. As they live in the area, they soon rushed to the scene."

Police then detained Gobinda, Johnny, Sajib and Srikrishna, who first drove through the checkpoint and then came back. Rakib said he was not detained because he took Shyamol to a hospital.

According to Shyamol and Rakib, the policemen at the scene said shooting Shyamol was a mistake. But the next day, a sub-inspector named Shahidul Islam filed a case with Sirajdikhan Police Station, accusing Shyamol and the five friends of trying to snatch firearms from cops.

"That moment completely altered my life. From being an earning member of the family, I became a liability. My parents are now in debt because of the legal expenses and the medical bills that went past Tk 5 lakh," says Shyamol.

"The bullet went through my foot. I spent four months in a hospital bed and still cannot walk without a crutch. And I have to attend court hearings."

Shyamol's lawyer Mujibur Rahman said the trial proceedings keep dragging on because the five policemen  who are witnesses do not show up for hearings.

CASE AGAINST SHYAMOL, FRIENDS

According to the complaint, Assistant Sub-Inspector Shahidul Islam accompanied by constables Md Russel, Mehedi Hasan, and Saiful were on duty at a checkpoint on the Dhaka-Nababganj Road at 9:10pm that day.

After they stopped five speeding motorcycles, a biker named Sajib Mondol and five to six of his accomplices assaulted the policemen.

While a man named Shyamol was trying to snatch the shotgun from constable Saiful, the firearm went off and Shyamol was hit in the foot.

The motorcyclists then picked up three branches from roadside and assaulted the policemen, it said.

Sub-Inspector Asaduzzaman of Sirajdikhan Police Station investigated the case and pressed charges against all the accused on June 26, 2019.

Shyamol and Rakib said none of the accused had any criminal record.

At their request, three policemen accompanied Rakib while he took Shyamol to Keraniganj Upazila Health Complex and later to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Shahidul Islam Khan, one of the two locals who were named as witnesses in the case, said he was at home during the incident.

"A policeman I know called me and asked me to go there. I did not see anything. I was briefed about the incident by the police after I reached the scene," Shahidul, currently a Union Parishad member, told this newspaper, adding that he did not even know he was being named in the case as a witness.

On February 9, 2020, Mongol Ali, the other man who is a witness in the case, testified at a Munshiganj court that he happened to be nearby and went to the scene hearing a gunshot.

The police told him a gun went off after several motorcycles ignored a police signal and rode on.

PUNISHMENT: TK 150 FINE, DRILL FOR 5 DAYS

Weeks after the incident, police formed a three-member committee to investigate why constable Saiful used his firearm.

The committee in its report said constable Saiful's carelessness, lack of skills, and negligence in duty were responsible for the incident.

The report added that Shyamol and his friends had attacked policemen at the scene.

The committee ordered Saiful to deposit Tk 150, the price of the bullet, to the government exchequer and to perform a two-hour punishment drill for five days, said a letter written by the home ministry to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Commenting on the matter, Supreme Court lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua said it is unlikely that people with no criminal record would attack police and try to snatch a firearm.

Referring to the Police Regulations of Bengal 1943, he said when a shooting takes place, it has to be separately investigated by a superior police officer, the district police chief, and an executive magistrate.

"But the procedure is rarely followed," he told The Daily Star.

Mustafizur Rahman, senior secretary at the home ministry, could not be reached for comments last night.

A police report rarely goes against the police, and this has created a culture of impunity.

"This is why we have been seeing trigger-happy policemen in recent years," he added.

'COMPENSATE SHYAMOL'

A fact-finding committee of the NHRC later recommended that the home ministry give Shyamol Tk 2 lakh to partially compensate for his treatment costs and file a departmental case against the policemen responsible.

The ministry later requested the NHRC to reconsider its recommendation for compensating Shyamol. The latter turned down the request.

Contacted, NHRC Chairman Kamal Uddin Ahmed said, "The culture of punishing those responsible and compensating the affected has not been established in our country. We are trying. In some cases we ensure compensation and punishment."

"It is unfortunate that a man has been crippled permanently due to a shot fired carelessly by the police. The state cannot avoid responsibility," he added.

Shyamol's father Abdul Wahab said, "We are a poor family. I'm still having to spend what little we have because of the case."