Bangladesh News

An Assistant Commissioner (AC) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) along with two other policemen was arrested yesterday on charges of robbing a businessman’s house in the port city early Sunday.

They were suspended after the looted gold ornaments and Tk 1.75 lakh had been seized from them.

The arrestees are Assistant Commissioner (AC) Abu Saleh Mohammad Mofazzal Haque of CMP Panchlaish Zone, his bodyguard constable Ehsanul Islam and driver constable Abdur Rauf.

They were produced before a Chittagong court which placed them on a two-day remand yesterday.

Sources said AC Mofazzal along with the two constables went to the residence of businessman Faruq Ahmed at Urmi Plaza in Amirbag residential area at about 1:30am on Sunday.

They asked him to allow them search his house saying they had information that illegal VoIP equipment had been kept in the house.

When they did not find anything there, they demanded Tk 5 lakh from Faruq.

At one stage, the cops started beating Faruq’s son Arif, 21, prompting him to pay the law enforcers Tk 1 lakh.

Faruq promised to pay the rest of the money the next day but the policemen didn’t agree. They forced him to write them a cheque of Tk 1 lakh and give Tk 75,000 more and 24 tolas of gold ornaments he had borrowed from one of his relatives.

The cops said they would return the gold ornaments when Faruq pays them the rest of the money.

The two constables made negotiations with Faruq while the AC was waiting at the drawing room from 2:00am to 5:00am.

After receiving instructions from the cops over telephone, Faruq went to GEC intersection with the rest of the money to get back the gold ornaments at about 1:30pm.

But, nobody turned up there to receive the money. Later, he informed the high-ups of CMP about the incident.

CMP Commissioner M Akbar Ali held a meeting with high police officials at DC (north) Office at Chawk Bazar at 11:00pm on Sunday.

After interrogating all the officials separately, the CMP Commissioner identified the accused AC and the two constables.

AC Mofazzal admitted to committing the crime after Faruq Chowdhury and his family members identified him and the two constables.

Following their confessional statement, police recovered Tk 1 lakh from AC Mofazzal and Tk 75,000 and 24 tolas of gold ornaments from the constables.

The three accused were arrested immediately and suspended following the directives of the CMP commissioner on Sunday night.

“When we heard that three policemen in uniform committed the robbery, we didn’t waste any time to take action and identified them. They were immediately arrested and suspended,” CMP Commissioner Akbar Ali told the journalists at his office yesterday.

Faruq Chowdhury filed a case with Kotoali Police Station.

Police produced the three before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Kazi Abdul Hasib Md Sayeed and prayed for their five-day remand. However, the court granted their two-day remand.

Sources said Mofazzal, son of Azizur Rahman of Purba Mozampur village in Kushtia, joined the police as a BCS cadre on July 02 in 2005.

He was given the charge of assistant commissioner of CMP Panchlaish zone after the then AC, Mizanur Rahman went abroad on a UN mission a few months back.