No other police officials have perhaps consumed so much of airtime and column space than those stationed at the Savar and Ashulia police stations on the outskirts of Dhaka, in the past few years – albeit for wrong reasons most of the time.
Are these two stations the most corruption-prone of all? The question is making rounds in certain circles after all the 23 duty officers at the Aminbazar camp under Savar police station were “closed” (withdrawn) in an unprecedented move on Monday.
The officials were withdrawn, and quickly replaced, for their alleged involvement in extortion of money and merchandise from local traders – who blocked off the Dhaka-Aricha highway to demand their withdrawal earlier, in the day.
However, this is the not the first time that such allegations were raised against police officials or local people demonstrated on the street protesting police excesses.
Allegations of involvement in criminal offences such as extortion, extrajudicial killing, abuse of power, and breaching of operational terms, such as taking part in plainclothes operation, have often put Savar and Ashulia police officials under media spotlights.
According to an informed source at the police administration, disciplinary actions were taken against at least 50 policemen of the two stations in the last six months alone.
11 of them were incarcerated, five were dismissed from service, and four others’ salaries reduced. The rest of the officials are facing departmental inquiries at the moment, sources said.
Prior to the Monday incident, in June, nine officials stationed at the Harindhara outpost in Savar were withdrawn after they abducted and tortured a businessman to death. 11 other officials from Savar and Ashulia stations were also arrested in this connection.
All officials were later found guilty of “complicity” in the murder in an investigation headed by Additional Deputy Inspector General Mizanur Rahman.
In its report submitted to the deputy inspector general of Dhaka division, the probe committee mentioned that accused officials abducted and tortured businessman Shamim Sarkar on the night of June 5, which caused his death the following day.
The report also blamed negligence and lack of supervision of the higher police officials.
Earlier on March 17, a team of Savar police allegedly let a vehicle carrying arms and ammunitions pass through security, in exchange for bribes, instead of arresting the perpetrators.
But when a sub-inspector named Razzab Ali protested the incident, the accused officials turned up the heat on him and accused him of corruption instead. Soon he was transferred from the station.
Police in April had initiated a highly-compromised investigation into the allegation of freeing the arms-carrying vehicle against six officials, including one SI Emdadul Huq. But nothing came of it.
The then officer-in-charge of Savar police station Asaduzzaman sided with accused Emdadul, calling him a “sincere” and “honest” officer and complainant Rajjab as “insincere” and “unfit.”
Then in July, a police constable named Ekramul of the Ashulia police station faced the wrath of local people who physically assaulted him for his alleged attempt at extortion at the Baipail area.
In 2012, a total of 44 departmental cases of corruption were filed against 44 police officials in these two police stations, sources said.
Of them, seven officials were dismissed from service, the salaries of 23 were reduced, and varying degrees of punitive measures were taken against the rest.
Admitting allegations of corruption, Superintendent of Police (Dhaka district) Habibur Rahman said, “Savar and Ashulia are two of the most crime-prone areas inhabited mostly by low-income people, such as garment workers. Officials working there to maintain security have sometimes became involved in criminal activities themselves.”
“But this is not to say that if anyone is found guilty of committing a criminal offence, he or she can get off scot-free,” he added.
Replying to a query, he admitted that some policemen were still taking part in plainclothes operation, although they were prohibited from doing so.
