A vendor was allegedly tortured to death by police for his failure to pay the toll to Savar Police on Wednesday night, as per a report of the New Nation.The victim has been identified as Ripon Mia (26).The Police picked Ripon from a tea stall near the entrance of National Memorial at Nabinagar area at Savar around 10:00pm. The victim’s family was informed about his death on Thursday morning. Ripon’s wife Sathi Akhter alleged that police tortured her husband to death for his failure to pay the money they asked for. Sathi was with her husband when he was nabbed by the police, she said. Ashulia Police Station ASI Anwar Hossain, who was patrolling the area, demanded Tk. one thousand from Ripon, she alleged. “As Ripon refused to give the money the ASI beat him up and whisked him away in a police van”, she accused. Police told her in the morning that Ripon died in a road crash and his body was kept at Gonoshasthyo Hospital, she said. “Police have killed my husband failing to get the money,” Sathi alleged. Action would be taken against the ASI if the allegations by the victim’s family proved correct, ASP Rasel said, although no case was filed by the police as of Thursday night.The word police in developed countries, at least, stands for, at the minimum, a public organisation whose members are expected to treat the public with respect and intelligence – not with cruelty and malice and out of a desire to fill their own pockets. Instead of helping catch criminals and prosecuting the right criminals, some members of the force are themselves committing crimes and seen as criminals. Thus police is no less responsible for worsening crime situation making the people’s lives unsafe. The question is how a disciplined force in uniform be found associated with criminal activities and allow the law and order situation to deteriorate? The answer is most important before blaming the police they undoubtedly deserve. The true answer is that police were being used politically by the government and the high police officials also remained quiet when police were used for criminalisation of politics. Thus in the country most crimes are committed by politically involved persons and sometimes police are also found cooperating with the criminal elements in politics, sometimes police are committing crimes by themselves. The reasons are obvious why police are proving not so successful in containing crimes. Often they prosecute wrong ones only to protect the real criminals. In this way police are seen as responsible for spreading crimes and not preventing. We can’t have criminalised politics and good police if police do not maintain their professional integrity.
