The law enforcers have sought public support to identify the police informants engaged in criminal activities including mugging and extortion misusing power.
“We have adopted zero tolerance against extortion. Anyone found involved in such criminal offence despite being a police source will not be spared,” DMP Deputy Commissioner (media) Maruf Hossain Sarder told reporters yesterday.
He also asked people to file complaints with the police stations concerned or the deputy commissioner’s office as soon as they come across the persons who commit crimes identifying themselves as informants.
Usually people with criminal records are recruited as police sources to collect secret information on individuals or an area as they have easy access to the gangs involved in various crimes including militant activities, contract killings, mugging and extortion. Some of them, however, get involved in criminal activities again.
In the face of rising allegations against police sources engaging in criminal offences, the DMP Headquarters last year asked the police officers to remain alert about their activities.
Maruf said that they did not have any list of police sources and that there is no specific guidelines for their recruitment. “It can be anyone. The senior police officials deploy or appoint them for the sake of investigation in any case,” he added.
The informants remain anonymous and are also supposed to get financial support from the agencies for providing information. But when contacted, a number of police sources alleged that they had been deprived of the due financial benefits.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, a police source working in Mirpur area of the capital, said: “The police officers call us whenever a criminal incident takes place in the area. They keep us engaged for several days, sometimes for weeks, as long as the investigation continues.
“We have to leave other tasks behind to work for the police. Sometimes we risk our lives but do not get the due financial support in return.”
He said that in such cases, they are forced to get involved in different income-generating tasks including illegal acts.
Moreover, there have been numerous incidents of police sources being killed in conflicts among the criminals over establishing supremacy and share of money earned in illegal ways. Media reports suggest that at least 60 informants were killed in the last five years.
It is learned that the police and the Rapid Action Battalion are allocated some money as monthly payment for every informant. In case of the police, the amount varies from Tk6,000-15,000 while RAB pays an informant between Tk25,000 and Tk30,000, based on nature and importance of the cases.
Several informants told the Dhaka Tribune requesting anonymity that the corrupt police officers use them for realising money from businessmen, hawkers and drug dealers within the respected areas during patrol duty.
In the latest such incident, a tea-seller in Mirpur area, Babul Matabbor, succumbed to his injuries after being tortured and set on fire for refusing to pay toll for his makeshift roadside shop. Two informants, who are linked to local drug peddlers, reportedly took the police team to the shop on Wednesday night.
Deputy Commissioner Maruf yesterday said that there was no scope for the police to take the informants with them while conducting any operation. The authorities might take action against the officers responsible for such act.
Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of the Detective Branch of police, said that they had information that some “non-professional” police informants were committing crimes. “We often ask the OCs to remain alert about the activities of the informants,” said Monirul, also spokesperson of the DMP.
Meanwhile, police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque yesterday warned that they would show zero tolerance to the police members who commit crimes.
“If any police member is found involved in any criminal offence, then a criminal case will be filed against them. We never show mercy to any police member as they are not above the country’s law,” he told the journalists at a programme in Sylhet.
