Dhaka – Bangladesh Army men detained six members of the police’s Detective Branch on the charge of kidnapping a businessman and extorting Tk 1.7 million in ransom from his family before releasing him at Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar, according to reports published in different newspapers and news agencies on Thursday.The money was recovered from a car tracked down by the army men at Shaplapur of the marine drive early on Wednesday morning.
Ex-Inspector General of Bangladesh Police said, people in positions of power and influence sometimes show such tendency of abusing the same and should be punished. Terming it as a serious incident undermining the image of the police force, he suggested that the counter intelligence should be more active to detect those in the force having a tendency to commit crimes, BBC reported in the morning
An army officer stationed at the camp to supervise the distribution of relief goods among the Rohingya refugees said, “Our personnel detained the six detectives from the car at a check post, but another managed to flee.”
The six detectives detained by the army are Sub-Inspector Abul Kalam Azad, assistant sub-inspectors Firoz Ahmed, Golam Mostafa and Md Alauddin, and constables Mostafa Alam and Nuruzzaman.
According to reports, the detective officer who fled has been identified as Sub-Inspector Moniruzzaman. He has also been detained, police said.
Cox’s Bazar district Additional Superintendent of Police Md Afrazul Haque Tutul said the seven DB men have been suspended.
He later said Cox’s Bazar district police have formed a five-member committee to investigate the incident. Police gave back the money to the businessman and took custody of the seven detectives, the ASP said.
The ‘kidnapped’ person, Abdul Gafur, runs an export-import business at Teknaf Land Port.
He said some people, posing as police detectives, picked him up on a microbus when he left a restaurant in Cox’s Bazar after having a meal on Tuesday afternoon.
“They confined me to a house at an unknown place and tortured me overnight. They took me to the marine drive around 2:30 am (Wednesday) and threatened to kill me,” he said.
“The DB policemen demanded Tk 10 million ransom from me. I talked to my family on the phone at the time. The detectives agreed to release me when I offered them Tk 1.7 million.
“They released me when my family paid them at Moheshkhalia Parha on the marine drive,” he said.
Gafur’s brother Teknaf Municipality Councillor Moniruzzaman said that the family contacted the army immediately after the alleged abductors demanded the ransom. “The army helped recover the money after my brother was released,” he said. – Agencies
