THE man was promoted to the post of Superintendent of Police (SP) of Faridpur 11 years after passing his BCS exams. In his new position, which he held for eight months, he earned approximately Tk 70,000 per month under the fifth grade of the government pay scale, his highest till date, as per reports of a local daily.
A recent investigation by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) however revealed that the SP Subash Chandra Saha and his wife have amassed Tk 8.36 crore in bank accounts in only four years, an amount beyond any of their known source of income. After completion of the investigation, ACC officer filed a case against the SP and his wife Rina Chowdhury with Bangshal Police Station on Tuesday under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012.
According to the case statement, the SP and his wife jointly opened 19 fixed deposit receipts (FDR) with three branches of One Bank Ltd and deposited Tk 7.97 crore between 2013 and 2017. The accumulated value of the FDRs, including interest, now stands at Tk 8,36,13,367. The ACC began the inquiry in the middle of the year after an unidentified person filed a complaint against the SP accusing him of amassing huge amount of wealth illegally. The inquiry report was submitted to the Commission one and half months before filing of the case. Last week, the SP was withdrawn from Faridpur and he was attached to the police headquarters in Dhaka.
The entire nation would like to know how the SP has managed to acquire over 8 crores of takas in only four years of his posting as a senior officer. The incident only came to light when this unidentified person filed a complaint against him. It is unfortunate that we have to rely upon the animosities of people to find out the level of corruption of public officials. SPs are among the highest ranking police officials on active duty. If some of them can amass eight crores or more then what can be said about other people working with law enforcement agencies and such other positions.
Far more alarming than the discovery should be the fact that police themselves don’t do anything to find out instances of corruption among its officials. Why should it take someone else to find out that public officials are corrupt ? Why don’t the police have an internal affairs division to find out the level of corruption? It is entirely possible that this is merely the tip of an iceberg — but it seems unlikely that either the police or ACC will try to find out more.
It is a national tragedy that we have to depend upon a chance to find out the high level of corruption among public officials. There is no proper monitoring of their performance in any level. Indeed, if one has to pay money to get a job or be transferred, what more can one expect from people in our law enforcement departments. Such cases at higher places must be sternly dealt with.
