Cops or criminals?

Two officials of the Detective Branch of police were closed yesterday for allegedly detaining a businessman without any charges in the capital early April 7 and releasing him hours later in exchange for Tk 1 crore.
Sub-Inspector Hasnat and Inspector Azhar led a team of DB men and picked up businessman Syed Abidul Islam, 42, from his house at Gulshan-1 around 3:00am on April 7. They later released him in exchange for Tk 1 crore, alleged Kabirul Haque Mukti, lawmaker of Narail-1 and a friend of Abidul.
But both SI Hasnat and Azhar denied any involvement in the incident. Hasnat, however, told The Daily Star, “Azhar and I have been closed.”
In a letter to the home ministry on April 24, lawmaker Mukti alleged the two officials led the illegal operation on instructions from Molla Nazrul Islam, deputy police commissioner, DB (north).
Refuting the allegations against him, Nazrul, who was transferred to Protection and Protocol Division on Saturday, said lawmaker Mukti had a grudge against him over an incident in Narail two years ago.
“I had strongly opposed an assault on a minority community member by his associates in 2010,” he said.
Nazrul also claimed his transfer to Protection and Protocol Division was part of a regular inter-departmental change.
Businessman Abidul, who is from Narail, told The Daily Star that the DB men demanded Tk 10 crore for his release, and threatened that he would otherwise be implicated in false cases.
Later, Abidul managed to get the amount dropped to Tk 1 crore through negotiations by businessman Azzadur Rahman Mithu from Narail.
Abidul, who did not see Nazrul during his forced detention in the DB headquarters, claimed Mithu negotiated the amount with Nazrul.
Once the amount was decided, SI Hasnat accompanied Abidul, his businessman friend Fakhrul Islam, and Mithu to Standard Chartered Bank, United Commercial Bank Ltd and Brac Bank in Shantinagar to withdraw the money on April 7 afternoon, he said.
CCTV footage at UCBL and Brac Bank shows Abidul, Mithu and SI Hasnat withdrawing money.
Abidul said he came to know Mithu through Fakhrul -- both of whom run money-exchange businesses at the DCC market in Gulshan.
He claimed Mithu is a distant relative of DB official Nazrul.
Ruling out the allegation, Nazrul said Mithu, who is also from his home district Narail, came to his office a couple of times and sought help for recovering money from a client.
He admitted that Mithu had come to his office on the day of the incident, but he didn't talk to him, but rather assigned SI Hasnat to look into Mithu's case.
SI Hasnat, who was seen in the footage accompanying Abidul and Mithu at UCBL and Brac Bank, said he went there to accompany Mithu.
“Sir [Nazrul] asked me to look into his case. So, I went to the banks on Mithu's request,” Hasnat said.
“I saw Abidul for the first time in the banks,” he said.
However, Hasnat previously told The Daily Star that he did not go inside the banks; rather he stood outside Karnafuli City Shopping Complex and drank tea.
When pressed further, SI Hasnat said he only went inside Brac Bank. As his attention was drawn to the footage in which he stood near the UCBL's cash counter, SI Hasnat said he didn't remember exactly which banks he had gone to.
He said he went to his Rajarbagh house from the banks, and then to the home ministry where he signed the register at 4:30pm on April 7.
Earlier, similar allegations had been raised against SI Hasnat and some DB men --- that they picked up businessmen and later released them in exchange for money.
Abdul Quaiyum, owner of call carrier SS enterprise, and Bilal Hossain, owner of internet service provider Sorob IT Ltd, were subjected to extortion allegedly by DB men.
On these allegations, DB official Nazrul claimed that all these businessmen had illegally used VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), and the DB filed about 20 cases against such businesses.
“I think this is a conspiracy by a powerful VOIP syndicate that wants the DB's drive against it to stop,” he said.
Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandaker told The Daily Star on Friday, “We have heard about the incident, and Dhaka Metropolitan police had been given the responsibility to investigate the matter.”
Wishing anonymity, an official of Rab intelligence wing told The Daily Star that the elite force was looking into the case, but declined to give details.