People were supposed to be assured of help upon going to a police station or seeking their assistance. But how much of that happens, remains a question. These days facing police harassment even if a person is not involved with any criminal activities has become a common story in this country. In many cases this are done just to realise some money from the victims. Such allegations have been brought against six policemen of three police stations in Mirpur, Dhaka. They implicated some people in drugs cases while some in human trafficking cases when they did not get the amount of money they demanded.
According to a Prothom Alo report, five people have brought the allegations against the police officials stationed at Rupnagar, Pallabi and Darus Salam police stations. They said they were implicated as they did not give money the police officials demanded. Three among the reported victims informed the matter to the home ministry and police high officials. There are traders, employees at private firms and drivers of ride sharing motorbikes and passengers. The incidents took place in between August 2021 and March 2022. Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Mirpur Division, however, declined the allegations. They claimed such allegations have been brought against the policemen as they declined to pay toll to them.
Police have allegedly looted money while raiding at a house of a woman, who has a rickshaw business and has been suffering from cancer for a long time, in Rupnagar area. They raided the house to search stolen mobile phones. When the woman brought allegations to the police high officials, she was implicated in a human trafficking case. In another incident in the same area, police raided another house on allegations of searching yaba but lodged a case for possessing hashish. But the person has been facing threats of being implicated in false cases after getting release on bail. In both the cases, the policeman involved is Sub-Inspector (SI) Masudur Rahman stationed at Rupnagar police station.
Police have allegedly implicated a person in a heroin-related lawsuit at Pallabi police station for not getting Tk 300,000 as toll. The family of mobile phone repairing shop owner is now suffering. In the same way, two persons have been implicated in drugs cases at Darus Salam police station. The two were not spared even though the relatives paid the money.
Drugs have become a major tool for police to realise toll. There are allegations of death in police custody in such incidents as well. Facing frisking by police on way has turned into a terrific incident these days. In most of the cases, victims keep mum fearing further police harassment and losing honour. The five people in Mirpur must be thanked as instead of giving up they took the matter to the police high officials. DB police have already started investigation into an incident. We hope the remaining incidents will also come under investigation and reports would be submitted soon and punitive actions would be taken against the perpetrators speedily.
It cannot be accepted at all that an innocent person, who leaves home for workplace in the morning, suddenly turns into a criminal after facing police. They suffer a lot in terms of loss of money and time for reporting at court on dates. In such cases, getting acquittal becomes a tough task let alone the compensation. We want more responsible actions of the Home Ministry and people involved with the monitoring of police actions.