Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB 7) nabbed a university student, Mehedi Hasan, 21, in Chittagong City’s Pahartoli area with 900 gram cocaine in possession on October 5 last year. However, the recovered item was later labelled as soda after chemical test at the forensic laboratory of Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
In another incident of May 29, 2013, the elite force nabbed Ruhul Amin, 24, with 1.45kg cocaine from Feni Railway Station. This time, the drug substance was termed urea fertiliser by the CID.
Three other cocaine seizures by the RAB’s same unit in Chittagong last year were also found to be negative in the forensic test, said CID sources.
RAB men arrested Md Saifuddin, 45, and Goni Mia, 42, with 1.45kg cocaine at Kadamtali on May 6. Four days later, one Alamgir, 45, was caught with 1.30 kg at a residential hotel in the city’s Paschim Madarbari.
On May 19, Mohammad Farid, 38, was nabbed with 1kg cocaine from the port city’s Shah Amanat Bridge area.
Cocaine is a narcotic (organic compound) extracted from coca leaves. It is used as a surface anaesthetic or taken for pleasure; and can become powerfully addictive with having severe impact on health.
Pinku Poddar, assistant chemist of the CID’s Forensic Laboratory in Chittagong, said the five cocaine seizures by the RAB were found to be negative after chemical test.
Several high officials of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police, asking not to be named, alleged that the RAB staged “cocaine drama” to get recognition from their department as well as media attention.
On the other hand, the RAB said they had conducted chemical tests on the substances themselves and affirmed that those were cocaine.
The RAB sources, however, accused a quarter of unscrupulous policemen of altering the cocaine samples and replacing by soda, fertiliser or others.
The blame game has given the criminals to walk free, sources said adding that many innocent people were also harassed because of the conflict.
Sometimes innocent people are arrested based on false information provided by their rivals. Informants of the law enforcement agencies also implicate innocent people with a view to serve their anterior purposes, the sources said.
Banaz Kumar Majumder, additional commissioner (crime and operation) of the CMP, told the Dhaka Tribune that the findings of any seizure by the police or the RAB had been tested by the CID forensic department. “The CID’s test is acceptable by the court.
“There is no scope either for the police or the RAB to change the seizure list and the items,” he said adding that the RAB was responsible for their recoveries.
Lt Col Mifta Uddin Ahmed, commanding officer of RAB 7, said: “There is no possibility of irregularities in our recoveries. Any quarter may have been changing the samples to serve their ulterior purposes.”
He also said they had conducted chemical tests of the recovered drugs by their own “Kit Box tools” initially adding that it gave accurate result most of the time. “If there is any suspicion, we send the samples to the RAB Headquarters Forensic Lab, which is the country’s most modern forensic test,” he added.
Mofiz Uddin, deputy director and in-charge media wing of RAB 7, said they had tested the seized cocaine from Mehedi in their own way – both in Chittagong and Dhaka, and found positive result.
“I cannot not understand how the cocaine turns into soda in CID’s forensic test,” he said.
Azizul Islam, officer-in-charge of Pahartoli police station, said they had sent the item to the forensic lab, and that they had no responsibility in this regard.
Kamal Uddin, father of Mehedi, claimed that his son was trapped by a RAB source to get recognition.
The Rab 7 chief, Lt Col Mifta Uddin, said he had not received such complaints but would investigate if there was any.
