Members of Bangladesh Police force are under huge number of complaints of misdeeds, corruption and laps in duties and the number is increasing day by day.
At one side, police has been struggling to solve crimes like extortion, bribe, corruption and rape; on the other hand, complaints against the police members are perturbing the administration.
Many policemen are grabbing promotion and preferable posting even without get freed from the complaints or even after found guilty. The top level of the government also put these matters into condemnation. Private Anti-corruption organization Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has marked police atop in conceding corruption among various government agencies.
Crime experts said this occurrences happened as the police department have detached from transparency and accountability. They’re becoming much more desperate as proper punishment for their misdeeds is not in practice. It’s also encouraging many police-members to be involved with various offenses.
The experts urged to form an independent and neutral commission to file complaints against police and its subsequent investigation.
In 2017, 10 lac pieces of Yaba have been confiscated, while only 10,000 pieces were reported. In the own investigation of the police, it was fond that the rest of the yabas have been sold secretly.
In this occurrence, action has been taken against six officers and three constables, but only verbal denounce has been delivered to SP AKM Iqbal Hossain and other two additional superintendents of police.
In the forgery incident in recruiting constables in Narayanganj, divisional punishment was recommended against Rupganj Thana officer-in-charge Mahmud Hasan, Inspector Nazrul Islam, Aslam Hossain and six sub inspectors. But, instead of receiving punishment, they have been transferred to their preferred locations. Same examples also prevailed in many other cases.
According to the information provided by Bangladesh Government to office of the high commissioner of United Nations Human Rights on May 12, among the 2,13,000 members of law-enforcing agencies, 20,500 have faced departmental inquiry, which were 9.6% of total members.
In 2021, a total of 17,966 policemen faced trivial punishment like warning, condemnation or temporary salary curtail, while 2,388 of them faced suspension or demotion.
According to police source, in 2018, complaints has been filed against 14,402 policemen, while next year this number increased to 14, 512.
Chairman of Criminology department of University of Dhaka, Farjana Rahman told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “We’ve been observing that among the police, only low-ranked police like SI or constable gets punishment. However, if police of higher ranks proved guilty, then they have been escaped the complaints just by being denounced or warned.
She said the offence of polices should be investigated by neutral body instead of giving its charge to the department itself. The police members are also the citizen of the state and nobody’s beyond the scope of law.
Former additional inspector general of Poilice, Mokhlesur Rahman told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “Punishment should be due whoever does crimes. It should not be differentiated according to ranks. The investigation process should be in right way. Denouncement or condemnation is seemingly big punishment for senior officers, as it leads to stop their promotions from three to five years and holding up of increment.
According to the police law, if any policeman involves in any kind of crime, then they would be subjected to two types of departmental punishment. As big punishment they can be dismissed from the job, their promotion and salary increment can be withheld and job-related facilities can be cancelled.
In a survey conducted by police it has been found that more than 73% of the victims didn’t submit complaints at police station. The unfriendly behavior of police and their financial corruption seemed to main reasons behind it.
Due to the involvement of offering bribe, DMP joint commissioner (logistics) Md Imam Hossain has been recommended to be transferred by a letter issued by DMP commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam on May 30, 2022. On that letter, Imam Hossain has been stated as a corrupted officer and after 10 days of sending the letter he has been transferred to Public Order Management department. However, he has been promoted to additional DIG in CID within 20 days.
Recently, in a field survey conducted by TIB, it has been revealed that traffic police is the most corrupted among all the departments of police. Highway police, Thana Police and special branch come next to it. People have to pay bribe of Tk 2035 in filling general diary, 3224 in submitting traffic-case, 9918 in arrest-related matters, 10104 in case investigation and 10554 in filing FIR.
In the survey report, it has also been stated that most of the victims of corruption from various law-enforcing agencies were connected to arrest-related matters, which was around 92.8% of this kind of misdeeds.
Statement of police headquarters: Assistant inspector general of police headquarters Md Manjur Rahman told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “Police department has been on the stance of zero tolerance for many years to any kinf of corruption of its members. Police headquarters take proper action based on investigation. If any member found guilty in investigation, departmental action will be taken against him. Even, they’re punishable under criminal law if they involve in criminal activities.”
@The article appeared on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on October 16, 2022 and rewritten in English by Lutful hoque
