Police Extortion From Goods Trucks
HC asks IGP to report action in 72 hours
The High Court on Sunday directed the inspector general of police to submit a report in 72 hours on steps they had taken to stop extortion by the police from goods transports.
A bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain issued the order suo moto taking cognisance of a newspaper report headlined ‘Police extortion adds to goods prices,’ published in the daily Prothom Alo on Saturday.
The bench also issued a rule asking the home secretary, the inspector general of police and the chief of the Government Railway Police to explain in two weeks the legality of extortion by the police.
Deputy attorney general Biswojit Roy submitted a copy of the newspaper report to the court.
The newspaper report said that because of extortion by the police, goods prices increased by Tk 10 to Tk 20 a kilogram when they reach to Dhaka or Chittagong using highways from Rangpur.
The regular or highway police, responsible for the protection of transports, are involved in extortion, the report said.
Transport owners and workers called on the authorities for effective steps to contain extortion, both by criminals and the police, on the highway.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner on July 7, however, assured the transport association of stringent action against law enforcers proved to be guilty of extorting money from goods trucks.
On July 24, the parliamentary standing committee on the home ministry at its meeting at the national assembly complex observed that teams of plain-clothes police were out to extort money from ordinary people.
The police officials who attended the meeting failed to counter the allegations the lawmakers levelled against the police but they assured the committee of investigating activities of the law enforcement agencies and taking necessary steps against them.
Jatiya Party lawmaker Mujibul Haque, also a committee member, asked the police not to send plain-clothes teams on operation.
‘The police filed cases against unnamed people in their efforts to extort money from innocent people. Anyone declining to give money to the police face charges,’ the lawmaker said.
‘It must be stopped,’ he said and other lawmakers attending the meeting supported Mujibul.
‘Plainclothes teams of police stations are also involved in extortion. Such plainclothes teams should be dismantled,’ he said.
He said that the recent incident of extortion by a team of plainclothesmen at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar was a glaring example of money being extorted from ordinary people.
The police arrested some members of plainclothesmen of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar station when they were extorting money from a rickshaw-puller.
The authorities will review the allegations and suggestions and take action against the people responsible, Hassan Mahmood said.
-With New Age input
