Last December, after a group of criminals vandalised and set fire to cars and shops and exploded bombs in the capital’s Fakirerpul Bazar area, police published a list of 11 individuals and declared Tk1 lakh bounty for each of them.
That particular incidence of violence was thought to be a part of the massive anarchy that men from Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Chhatra Shibir staged around the country after their leader Abdul Quader Molla had been hanged for war crimes on December 12, 2013.
Interestingly, the list that Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) made public through a media briefing on December 23, and later put up on its website and social media, did not mention any name; the list comprised only 11 photographs.
During that briefing, Monirul Islam, a joint commissioner of the Detective Branch of Police, said: “If anyone comes forward to help police arrest the miscreants red-handed, they will be awarded Tk1 lakh. If anyone helps in arresting criminals possessing explosives, crude and petrol bombs, they will be awarded Tk25,000.”
Eight months have passed after that list was made public and the DMP still has no idea about the names of those 11, let alone arrested anyone. It is evident that the bounty idea did not work out for the police.
On August 9 this year, 19 leaders and activists of Shibir were arrested in the capital’s Mohammadpur area while they were allegedly holding a secret meeting.
Police later said the Shibir men were arrested for staging violence in the streets last year, but could not confirm whether there were any from the list of 11.
According to DMP sources, the Detective Branch (DB) is currently investigating around 20 cases filed against at least 1,000 named Jamaat-Shibir men and many others unnamed in connection with street violence.
DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media) Masudur Rahman recently told the Dhaka Tribune: “Police is trying to trace them [the 11 in the bounty list]. Solving political cases usually takes time.”
Sources say there is no instance in history where a bounty is announced and a common citizen has helped police in arresting a criminal by giving information or any other means. The common perception is that although police always pledge to keep informers’ identity secret, the citizens do not trust police enough to tip them off even if they have any information.
On July 18, police arrested top criminal Samrat after a businessman in the capital’s Jatrabari tipped them off about the criminal’s den. However, just a couple of days later, Samrat came out on bail and started threatening the businessman for giving information to police.
Oboni Shankar, officer-in-charge of the Jatrabari police station, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Samrat was arrested after we got a specific complaint. How he was released is a matter of the court. Police do not reveal the name of informers to the culprits; these are baseless complaints. Police never help any criminal by disclosing the identity of informers.”
Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said: “Who gets bail and who does not depends on the court. Police is responsible for arresting the criminal and they performed their duty.”
It is generally the paid informers who help police with information. An informer told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is not surprising that common people do not respond to the bounty announcements. Even we, whose identities should be kept secret, continuously keep getting threats from criminals.”
Asked why they were not responding to the bounty announced in December last year, the informer said there were two reasons.
An informer generally works under an officer of a police station. The informer said neither he nor his fellows had yet been directed by their reporting officer to give information about those 11.
The second reason is that the informers have never been paid any money from the bounty for tipping them off. On most past occasions, law enforcers who conduct a raid for arresting a criminal usually get the money instead.
Sources said depending on the magnitude and stature of criminals, an informer gets between Tk500 and Tk5,000 for tipping police off. The police authorities in the metropolitan cities have individual Source Money Funds of their own from where they pay the informers. However, in case a bounty is announced, the police authorities manage the money from other sources.
A high official from the police headquarters on condition of anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune: “We already give huge amounts of money to the informers. Therefore, after an arrest, the reward money is distributed among the members who had joined the drive.”
The practice of announcing bounty for criminals itself is not very common in Bangladesh. Before the one announced in December, the last such bounty could be dated as far back as 2005. And the first ever bounty in the country’s history was declared only in 2001.
In December 2001, the Home Ministry first announced a reward of Tk15 lakh for information leading to 23 high profile criminals of Dhaka including Kala Jahangir, Joy, Haris, Rasu, Prokash, Killer Abbas, Arman, Subrata Bain, Pichchi Helal, Pichchi Hannan, Tokai Sagar, and so on.
In June 2004, a team of RAB 1 arrested Pichchi Hannan in a clinic in Savar near Dhaka. It was RAB’s first successful operation after it was formed. The same day, the RAB 1 team was rewarded with Tk50 lakh. However, there are allegations that the members of that team did not get any money. Pichchi Hannan was killed in a “crossfire” later that year.
On June 3, 2005, a team of RAB 4 arrested Arman in the capital’s Dhanmondi area after getting information from a paid source. At that time, the home minister rewarded two RAB officials who conducted the drive. But nobody knows what reward the informer got.
However, Monirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are bound to give the bounty to the informers and we have already done that on several occasions after getting credible information leading to an arrest.”
According to DMP Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman, if someone wants to help police with information and be eligible for getting a reward, that person will have to first contact the Media Cell of DMP.
“If an informer gives information about a criminal we will first verify it. Then if we manage to catch the criminal, then the informer gets the bounty money through the Media Cell of DMP. If we cannot catch the criminal, the informer will not get any money,” he said.