Torture, extortion allegation against DC Ahad false: DB

The allegations against Deputy Commissioner Abdul Ahad and some other officers of torturing and forcing a man to write a cheque while in custody are false, the Detective Branch (Wari division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said today (26 December).

The media division of DMP released a statement where the Wari division of DB mentioned that the accuser, Jasim Uddin, is himself a swindler and fabricated false allegations to evade his wrongdoing.

Jasim Uddin, a trader from Dhaka's Ashkona, filed a complaint with the home ministry and DMP headquarters against four members of DB's Wari team on 10 December, claiming that they had tortured Jasim in custody and forced him to write a cheque of Tk3.60 crore.

Deputy Commissioner Abdul Ahad said a jeweler named Manas Das filed a case with Jatrabari police station on 13 October, accusing Jasim of pretending to be a gold trader and taking Tk3.90 crore with false promises of supplying him with gold. 

Jasim had transferred Tk3.60 crore to another account and then Jasim switched off the phone with which he contacted Manas, he said.

According to DB Wari, Jasim was arrested from a hotel in Malibagh on the night of 12 October and was subsequently remanded in connection with the case.

Later both parties reached a negotiation and settled it before a Dhaka court through an arbitration paper involving lawyers where Jasim wrote a cheque of Tk3.60 crore. The court later granted bail to Jasim, said the DB Wari statement, adding that the money had been frozen in his account.

DC Ahad said the DB officials neither took any cheque from the accused nor did they torture him.

During the investigation, the DB team claimed to have found pictures of gold bars and gold coins in Jasim's phone.

The DB team said they took Jasim's wife to the DB office because they found evidence of her online conversation with Jasim about the money. Later, she was released under the plaintiff's custody.

The DB Wari claimed that they had also found Jasim's previous record of fraud.

After the allegations surfaced, the DB Ramna is now investigating the fraudulence case filed by Manas.

When contacted, trader Jasim refuted the statement made by DB Wari division, asserting that he was arrested under false case and subjected to torture in DB custody to coerce his signature on a bank cheque.

"My wife was also taken to DB custody and faced police harassment," he added. 

DMP Joint Commissioner (cyber and special crimes, DB North) Khondakar Nurunnabi and Additional Deputy Commissioner (DB Tejgaon) Shafiqul Islam are investigating the allegations against the officers.

The committee is yet to submit their report.

Nurunnabi did not respond to cellphone calls on Tuesday night about the progress of their investigation.