Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
People from different professional strata, mainly rights bodies, have alleged that the people’s faith has already been lost on cops as maximum personnel get minor penalties after repeatedly committing serious crimes.
Huge numbers of victims are still indifferent to file any complaints against cops to avert further problems influenced by law enforcers, they said.
They added that people still fear police considering crimes like detention, threat, missing, filing fake case, wrong investigation, extortion, grabbing, creating artificial problems and harassing in the name of police verification.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque at a Community Police Day programme in the city has said, “Common people keep their distance from police as they fear the law enforcers. If there is a police fear among the people, then it has to be removed. If police and people work together, crime will be reduced.”
All members of the force, mainly Communality Police and Bit Police, have already enabled to back the faith of countrymen on police force, the IGP said.
Recently, he said, we have launched complaint cell in the headquarters to ensure the easy complaint service and victims’ security.
We generally ensure the punishment such as suspension, demotion, salary cuts, reproof notices and transfers, he mentioned.
In this context, a statistic from the Police Headquarters showed, a total of 76,426 members of Bangladesh Police were punished for their involvement in various crimes and irregularities in five years and eight months till August 31.
Among them, 551 were dismissed or sacked and 72 faced forced retirement after the allegations against them were proved, said a senior officer at the Police Headquarters.
The accused members were given four types of punishment – major and minor punishments, and dismissal and forced retirement, said the official.
The police currently have about 200,000 members, which means on any given year, 6-8 per cent of the force are facing some kind of disciplinary action, he said.
On Wednesday, 11 members of the Criminal Investigation Department took Tk 45 lakh in bribes from the owner of a recruiting agency in the city’s Fakirer pool area, a police probe report has found.
Seven Detective Branch (DB) policemen were caught red handed for possessing Tk 17 lakh ransom from a businessman at a check post on Teknaf-Cox’s Bazar Marine Drive on October 25.
On July 8, police have allegedly planted evidence to falsely charge a photojournalist of the Daily Observer with possession of contraband yaba pills. The incident took place on the night of June 27 at Shantinagar.
A suspect in a robbery case accused nine police of Khalishpur Police Station, including its Officer-in-Charge, of gouging out his eyes in Khulna early September.
In February, five cops officials, including Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Jatrabari Police Station under Dhaka Metropolitan Police, were sued for rape of a woman in the police station. The offender OC Abni Sankar Kar and four others were only transferred focusing the charge, said police sources.
Monir Hossain, relative of a victim, said, “People wearing jackets of DB along with pistol, handcuffs, wireless sets picked up his brother in January 15.”
He claimed that police personnel committed serious crimes but they got minor punishments.
Dr Zia Rahman, Professor of Criminology Department at Dhaka University, said, “If police do not undergo massive reform, people will not get necessary service from them.”
“We have always said that structural changes in police are needed, especially at the station level where there is a massive workload on policemen. For this reason, they need internal training on behaviour and job responsibility,” he said.
He also urged the public to protest police crimes.
Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman earlier claimed that 72 per cent police took bribe from people.
Nur Khan, a former executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), said that police professionalism and chain of command breaks down when police are used for political gains.
“We should prevent a lot of the illicit activities and misuse of power by police,” he said.
Human rights activist Alina Khan believes police’s internal actions are merely eyewash.
“When people forget the incident a few days later, they are back to doing the same crime. To prevent these incidents from recurring, we need exemplary punishment,” she said.
Interestingly, most of the investigation reports do not see the light of day, leaving the complainants to face police harassment instead, she said.
Asaduzzaman Miah, the DMP Commissioner, said that they have issued several letters against many police officials who were engaged in crimes like narcotics trade and kidnapping for money.
“If anyone is found involved in crimes, the person will not be treated as police official,” he said.
Sahely Ferdous, Assistant Inspector General (media and publication) of the Police Headquarters, said, “When we get any allegation against the police, first we investigate it. If we find any authenticity to the claims, we take action against them.”
Police also undertake criminal prosecutions against serious offenders, she added.
