Kalabagan police OC, SI suspended over alleged extortion, false case threat to innocent citizens

The officer-in-charge (OC) and a sub-inspector (SI) of Dhaka's Kalabagan Police Station have been suspended following allegations of extortion with the help of terrorists late at night and threatening to implicate citizens in false cases.

The withdrawn officials are OC Moktaruzzaman and SI Belal Hossain.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Talebur Rahman confirmed the matter of their withdrawal this morning (5 May).

According to DMP sources, Abdul Wadud, a distinguished educator and a Presidium member of the Bangabandhu Council, is a resident of Sonargaon Road under Kalabagan Police Station.  

Several policemen, led by SI Belal, along with individuals in civilian clothes, forcibly broke into his home at around 1:30am on 29 April. They demanded Tk1 crore, threatening to file cases against Wadud otherwise. 

The policemen left the house after receiving Tk2 lakh in cash, with the condition that the remaining amount would be paid later, DMP sources told The Business Standard.

"I haven't returned home since the incident. Although the police are asking me to go home, I'm not going due to fear of terrorists," Wadud told TBS when contacted over the phone today.  

"I've heard that the OC has been withdrawn. I don't accept this; he should be dismissed. He is a terrorist who extorts money using local terrorists. I will file a case against him," he added. 

What Wadud's written complaint to DMP chief says

Abdul Wadud filed a written complaint to DMP Commissioner SM Sazzat Ali regarding this incident yesterday (4 May).

In the complaint, Wadud said a group of policemen led by SI Belal, along with 15-20 "terrorists", forcibly entered his house at around 1:30am on 29 April. 

When his manager called 999, a police car arrived at the scene. Soon, two patrol cars from Shahbagh and New Market police stations stopped on the main road adjacent to the house.

However, the manager observed that Kalabagan police OC Moktaruzzaman asked the New Market and Shahbagh patrol teams to leave, Wadud wrote in the complaint. 

The OC then ordered that Lal Mia, a tenant, and Lutfor, a night guard, be taken into the police vehicle for informing the Shahbagh and New Market patrol teams. 

Wadud mentioned in his complaint that he has CCTV camera footage of the incident.

In the complaint, he claimed the policemen led by SI Belal attempted to break down the door to the third floor after entering the house. The noise of the door being broken in the middle of the night caused his 90-year-old mother and wife to fall ill from fear.

"After breaking one door, when they were trying to break the second door, I contacted the Kalabagan police OC for help via mobile. He told me to come out of the house with the police and to cooperate with the DB [Detective Branch] personnel who had arrived.

"Seeing no alternative and being respectful of the law, I prepared to go to the station with the police and opened the door," Wadud wrote. 

As soon as he opened the door, SI Belal and another policeman named Mannan pushed him back into the room and aggressively demanded to know what weapons he possessed. They ran around the house searching for something, he wrote.

After some time, Mannan took him aside and demanded Tk1 crore immediately, threatening to take him to the station and file 10 cases against him if he refused, Wadud alleged.

"After much pleading, I had no choice but to hand over Tk2 lakh to Belal and Mannan. They left three individuals in civilian clothes to guard me with the condition that I would pay the remaining amount within banking hours," he added. 

Wadud further alleged in the complaint that SI Belal forcibly obtained a confession statement from him, saying that no damage had been done to the house, and recorded a video of it before leaving. 

He alleged that they also took the house computer's CPU, laptop, and CCTV hard disks.

The complaint further says that OC Moktaruzzaman supervised the six-hour-long operation while standing on the road next to the house.

Wadud's complaint also mentioned that he had established a mini zoo with a government licence in 2006, where he kept rare foreign birds, including deer, macaws, cockatoos, eclectus parrots, rainbow lorikeets, and others. 

"Due to the loud noise of doors being broken in the middle of the night, a pregnant deer ran around frantically and sustained an injury to its mouth. The deer died that afternoon due to excessive bleeding. Several birds were also looted," he wrote.

According to the complaint, although the OC returned the laptop on 1 May, the rest of the items have not been returned. Threats from extortionists continued as they did not receive the money. Unidentified people are roaming around the house, and he is afraid to go home, said Wadud.