Police Monday claimed to have arrested two gangs comprising 20 criminals, who had been looting and cheating people impersonating them as the members of Detective Branch (DB), in separate drives in the capital and its outskirt Keraniganj Sunday.
They also seized 4 microbuses, a motorcycle, five pairs of handcuffs, three walky-talky sets, uniforms and various other police equipments.
The detainees include a sacked policeman and a retired member of Bangladesh Army, said police sources.
The seizure of so many numbers of handcuffs, walky-talkies, uniforms and other equipment raises question over the supply chain of police equipment and uniforms.
According to police and Rapid Action Battalion, around 400 criminals were arrested in last one year who had carrying out criminals activities in guises of police, Rab and DB personnel.
“The number of fake DB police is more than the original DB men and most among the fake DB men were the sacked or retired policemen”, said Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
While addressing a press briefing held at Media Centre of the DMP, Monirul also said the detained people had been looting and cheating people in many ways showing them fear of arresting or implicating in false cases unless they would have been paid money.
Asked, he said the criminals had managed the police equipment from different shops. He added: “We are verifying to be sure of whether any member of the police was involved in the process.”
According to police, a total of 14 fake DB men were arrested by the members of Mirpur police station at the capital’s outskirt Keraniganj Sunday night with a microbus, a motorcycle, three uniforms of DB, two walkie-talkie sets, four pairs of handcuffs, a signal light and four crude bombs in their possessions.
The 14 members of the gang were identified as Md Emon, 32, Habibur Rahman, 40, Bachchu Dewan, 50, Md Sumon, 32, Afzal Hossain, 40, Md Jamil, 35, Shameem Hossain, 36, Md Shameem, 35, Md Milon, 30, Badsha Miah, 47, Md Helal, 60, Hemayet Hossain, 50, Md Iqbal, 33, and Md Al Amin, 30.
Besides, the DB personnel arrested another gang of six fake DB men at the capital’s Rampura with three microbuses, a one-shooter gun, a walky-talky set, several stickers written DB and magistrate and other police equipment in their possession.
They were identified as Md Faruq Sayeed, 35, Abbas Ali, 32, Md Sultan, 35, Kamal Hossain, 27, Jamal Uddin, 30, and Jahangir Jamaddar, 33.
One of the fake DB men arrested in Keraniganj claimed they had been carrying out illicit acts impersonating DB men through monthly payments to two officials of Mirpur police station and they were arrested due to a feud over the payment.
