An assistant sub-inspector of Bongshal police station was arrested and subsequently suspended after he had shot a cable operator in the city's Meradia area of Khilgaon yesterday.
ASI Shamim Reza shot Al-Amin, 25, with his revolver in front of his house at Nandipara during an altercation over paying cable rent.
“Al-Amin is now out of danger as the bullet hit his abdomen and passed through creating an exit wound,” said Dr Moshiur Rahman of the casualty unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The youth was discharged from the hospital in the evening.
After shooting Al-Amin, ASI Shamim went back to Bongshal police station and was taken into custody. “Later we handed him over to Khilgaon police,” said Nur-e-Alam Siddique, OC of Bongshal police.
“The revolver was seized from his possession. Action will be taken against him after investigation,” said OC Monirul Islam of Khilgaon police.
Joint Commissioner of police's Lalbagh division Mofiz Uddin confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune the suspension of ASI Shamim in the evening.
Maruf Hossain Sarder, deputy commissioner of the DMP, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had launched a departmental inquiry into the matter.
Al-Amin filed an attempted murder case against ASI Shamim with Khilgaon police last night.
Recently, several members of the police were suspended and sued for torturing people including two officials of Bangladesh Bank and Dhaka South City Corporation. A sub-inspector of Kadamtali police was suspended recently for assaulting the son of a law enforcer based on false allegations.
On Wednesday, four officers including a sub-inspector of Rampura police were suspended for sexually harassing a woman while searching her house.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Al-Amin said that for the last few months ASI Shamim had been refusing to pay the monthly rent of cable connection to his flat claiming that he had paid the money to another person. Thus rent for four to five months remained due.
“Today [yesterday] I went to his house along with two others to collect the dues. But he wanted to pay for only two months. We agreed on it. But he wanted to pay Tk250 instead of Tk300 as monthly rent.
“We protested and demanded that he must pay Tk300 or else we will disconnect the line. Then we came down and cut off the connection.
“ASI Shamim came down to the ground floor and slapped me. As my co-workers protested, he brought out his revolver and shot at me,” Al-Amin said while lying on the hospital bed.
Anowar Hossain, a constable of the police's Detective Branch, who used to live on the second floor of the building, was present when the altercation took place. After the shooting, he first took Al-Amin to Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital and later to the DMCH.
Asked how ASI Shamim took his service revolver to home, Bongshal OC Alam said: “He was on duty today [yesterday]. He went home for a while informing the police station that it was something urgent. The incident took place at that time.”