Staff Reporter :A police constable allegedly walloped a tea-seller in Savar because the latter failed to pay interest in time on a loan taken from him.Alleged victim Belal Hossain said that he had to take first aid after the assault on Wednesday morning.The incident comes hot on the heels of a tea-seller’s death from burns received during an alleged attempt of extortion by policemen in Dhaka’s Shah Ali area last week.Belal, originally from Dinajpur, has been stayingwith his wife in a rented house in the Genda area.The accused constable, Mizanur Rahman, also lives there, according to the tea vendor.Belal said that he had taken a loan of Tk 7,000 from Mizanur Rahman for his business a few months ago.”Mizan asked for the interest in the morning. As I did not have the money yet, I told him that I would pay it by noon. He got angry at this and started threatening me. At one stage, he started beating me and left the scene when the locals intervened,” Belal said.The tea-seller said that Mizan was once posted at Rajarbagh Police Lines in Dhaka, but did not know his current workplace.Contacted, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Dhaka Russel Sheikh said that the police had not received any such complaints till Wednesday night. “If we get a complaint, action will be taken against the policeman no matter where he is posted.”
