DMP: Fire destroys case documents, evidences at 13 police stations

Thirteen police stations in the capital were set on fire on the day of the fall of the Awami League government in a student-people uprising and the day after (5 and 6 August).

The fire has destroyed 1,226 case documents in only six police stations - Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Badda, Adabor, Paltan and Wari, according to the preliminary findings.

Besides, around 1,100 pieces of evidence have been destroyed or damaged in Mirpur, Badda, Adabor, Wari and Shyampur and Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police stations.

There are 50 police stations under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). Of them, 21 stations were vandalised and set on fire on 5 and 6 August, the police said. Thirteen of the police stations were completely burnt that day. Those are - Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Badda, Adabor, Jatrabari, Khilgaon, Paltan, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Shyampur, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Bhatara, Wari and Khilkhet police stations.

The list of documents burnt at the remaining seven police stations of Jatrabari, Shyampur, Bhatara, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Khilgaon and Khilkhet is yet to be prepared.

As the computers alongside the documents and pieces of evidence at the Jatrabari police station were burnt, neither the list of the case documents, nor the evidence could be made.

Apart from them, the officers-in-charge (OCs) of Bhatara, Tejgaon industrial area, Khilkhet and Khilgaon said they were preparing the lists of materials looted from the police stations and damaged or destroyed case documents and pieces of evidence.

Relevant DMP officials say that information will be collected in various ways to make a list of the documents and evidence of the police stations where the number could not be known. This includes gathering information from the investigating officers of the cases.

Besides, the information can also be collected from the Criminal Database Management System (CDMS) at the DMP headquarters.

Speaking about this, DMP commissioner Md Mainul Hassan told Prothom Alo that investigations will be carried out by obtaining the burnt case documents from CDMS of DMP.

He further said he will take actions after seeking directives from the court about the pieces of evidence that have been burnt or looted.

The police of Mirpur model police station said that 660 case documents and 230 evidence of various cases were burnt there. The register book in the police station, the case dockets or CDs (all documents) of various cases have been burnt.

Officer-in-charge (OC) of this police station, Monirul Islam, told Prothom Alo that it will take time to prepare the new case documents, which will hamper the investigation process.

He further said that the relevant investigation officers will inform the court in writing about the destruction of evidence. Each case will be reported separately to the court.

Police sources said documents of 89 cases at Mohammadpur police station were burnt in the fire. However, the police could not know the exact number of cases that have evidence stored there.

Mohammadpur police station OC Iftekhar Ahmed said that the number of destroyed or looted pieces of evidence could not be known as all the registers of the police station were burnt.

Fire has burnt documents of 137 cases and evidence of 160 cases in Badda police station while documents of all the cases and around 150 pieces of evidence were burnt at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station. Different types of drugs,  including yaba and phensedyl, seized as evidence, were also destroyed.

At Adabor police station, documents of 76 cases and evidence of 100 were burnt. The registration book was also burnt.

The inspector (investigation) at the police station, Nazrul Islam, thinks that this will create problems in the investigation of the cases.

The documents of 190 cases were burnt at Paltan police station. The station’s OC Mollah Md Khalid said they could not know how many pieces of evidence were burnt as the registration book of the police station has been destroyed.

Documents of 74 cases and evidence of 215 were burned and looted at Wari police station while evidence of 239 cases were burned or looted at Shyampur police station. The police station OC Shafiqul Islam told Prothom Alo that they have been preparing the list of the documents of the cases which have been burned.

The documents of GD and cases, evidence and register book were burned or looted in the fire at Jatrabari police station, said the police station OC Mohammad Mainul Islam.

He further said the computer storing those data has also been burnt. As a result he does not know the total number of cases filed at the police station. This will disrupt the investigation of the cases. Even if the information of the case can be collected from the court and from the CDMS, the burned evidence cannot be recovered.

Data of cases filed at 50 police stations of DMP is stored in the CDMS. However, as there is no warehouse at the DMP headquarters, there is no system to preserve the evidence there. Besides, the CDMS was launched in DMP in 2012. Cases filed before that year were not included in the system.

Former DMP commissioner Naim Ahmed thinks that the investigation will be temporarily obstructed due to the burning of the case documents.

He told Prothom Alo Tuesday that the documents are generally preserved in the offices of the relevant assistant superintendent of police (circle) and at courts. The investigation can be continued by collecting those from there.

Stressing that every piece of evidence is very important for the trial in each case, Naim Ahmed said that since the power of the country has changed during the mass uprising, the investigating officer should inform the court that the evidence of the case has been destroyed.

He thinks that the court will conduct the trial of the cases and announce the verdict by taking these issues into consideration.

* The report, originally published in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza