A Cox’s Bazar court on Tuesday sentenced seven policemen, all detectives, to seven years in jail for kidnapping a trader and demanding a ransom of Tk 17 lakh for his release in 2017.
The court of District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Ismail also fined the convicts Tk one lakh each, in default of which they will have to serve one more year imprisonment in jail.
The convicts are the district’s DB sub-inspector (SIs) Md Moniruzzaman, Abul Kalam Azad, assistant sub-inspector (ASIs) Md Firoz, Golam Mostafa and Alauddin, constables Md Al Amin and Mostafa Azam.
The court handed down the judgment in presence of the convicts, Faridul Alam, public prosecutor of the court, said.
According to the case statement, a group of people identifying themselves as DB kidnapped a trader from behind the Sadar Police Station on October 24, 2017 and charged Tk 17 lakhs from the victim’s family as ransom.
Being informed by the victim’s relatives, members of the Army conducted a drive and detained the DB personnel with the charged amount of Taka when they were about to drop the victim at a check post of the army in Shyamlapur area under Teknaf upazila.
Though SI Moniruzzaman managed to flee the scene, rest others were caught red-handed by the army.
Later, business Abul Gafur filed a case accusing the DB members at the Teknaf Police Station.
The Investigation Officer of the case submitted charge sheet against the accused around 10 months after the lawsuit was registered.
After testifying witnesses and verifying documents the court delivered the order on Tuesday.
Bd/English/Salamat
