A section of police personnel is still involved in various immoral activities, including extortion, bribery, intimidation and framing innocent people in false cases, even after one year of the July uprising that ousted the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
Many police personnel are now facing punitive actions like suspension and withdrawal from their posted positions for their alleged involvement in the misdeeds.
A good number of police personnel are now accused of enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killings and financial corruption, they allegedly committed during the 16 years of Sheikh Hasina regime and opening fire indiscriminately on the protesters during the mass uprising.
On July 15, the home ministry suspended former Dhaka Metropolitan Police鈥檚 Ramna Division assistant commissioner Md Sazzadur Rahman, now attached with the DMP headquarters, for taking Tk 27 lakh from a money embezzlement case accused, Md Alimuzzman Saikat.
The former assistant commissioner took the money by searching Alimuzzaman鈥檚 house at the Bhawa area in Narail on February 2 without any approval from his higher authorities, said a gazette notification issued by the Public Security Division.
The gazette notification also said that the police official did not disclose the incident of detaining and releasing Alimuzzman.
It also said that Sazzadur, while facing interrogation, acknowledged that he had secretly detained and released Alimuzzaman and taken Tk 22 lakh from the accused.
The division, in another gazette notification on July 25, suspended a superintendent of police, Mohammad Shibli Kaiser, as he had allegedly demanded money in extortion from a woman named Lipi Khan Bharsha while he had been serving as Rangpur Metropolitan Police鈥檚 deputy commissioner.
On March 13, when Lipi鈥檚 manager Md Palash came to Rangpur Kotowali police station to file an extortion case that mentioned Shibli鈥檚 name as an accused, Shibli came to know the news and arrived at the police station and tortured Palash, the gazette notification said.
Terming these a longstanding problem in the force, inspector general of police Baharul Alam told 抖阴精品 on August 3 that the situation would not change overnight.
鈥楤ut, I can say that police officers鈥� involvement in crimes and taking money from people has now reduced compared to that in the past,鈥� the IGP added.
The additional inspector general of police for crime and operations, Khondoker Rafiqul Islam, however, told 抖阴精品 on August 2 that only a few, out of over 2,00,000, police personnel were involved in these immoral activities.
鈥榃e, the high officials at the Police Headquarters, took action against them. We are maintaining our zero tolerance policy in this regard,鈥� he added. 聽聽
Former IGP Nurul Huda said that the situation would not change overnight as many people joined the police force by paying bribes in a bid to earn money in an illicit way.
Supreme Court lawyer Sara Hossain, also an honorary executive director of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, said that the authorities concerned should make the police crimes public and take prompt actions after investigation.
鈥楪eneral people should have a place to file complaint against police officials without any fear,鈥� she added.
On May 4, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police suspended Kalabagan police officer-in-charge Moktaruzzaman and two other sub-inspectors over allegations of unprofessional conduct.
Their suspension came hours after a formal complaint was lodged with the DMP commissioner by Abdul Wadud, who owns a mini zoo Phycamolli Centre, in the capital.
According to the complaint, the three police officers on April 29 demanded Tk 1 crore during an overnight raid on Wadud鈥檚 home that also houses the zoo in the Hatirpool area.
On January 3, two police constables, namely Md Suman Miah and Shahriar Hossain, were withdrawn from the Companiganj police station and attached to the district police lines in Sylhet on a charge of extortion from drivers of stone-laden trucks at Companiganj upazila in the district.
On February 11, a total of 13 police personnel, including two sub-inspectors and two assistant sub-inspectors, were suspended from the Companiganj Police Station in Sylhet for their alleged involvement in extortion.
Following the July 16 Gopalganj violence centering the National Citizen Party rally that killed five people and injured over 50, the police were accused of taking money from innocent people, threatening them with arrests in violence cases, several human rights groups and local people alleged.
They alleged that the police also arrested minors and innocent people in the cases.
Towards the end of the mass uprising, 450 out of 664 police stations were attacked, vandalised and set on fire across the country, while at least 45 police personnel were killed and about 1,000 vehicles were damaged and destroyed.
Many police officials are now facing charges of murder over killing protesters during the uprising, and many of them are also facing charges of crimes against humanity committed during the mass uprising.
