Graft Report on Cop
Journo’s house ransacked
The officer-in-charge of Tanore Police Station was removed yesterday for raiding the house of the journalist he beat up on Thursday.
Hours before his removal, Tanore police recorded an extortion case against Imran Hossain, Tanore upazila correspondent of Rajshahi-based daily Sonar Desh.
The assault on the journalist came a day after his report on corruption of the local police administration was published.
OC Azizur Rahman Sarker was closed to the Rajshahi police line after he sent policemen to raid Imran’s house, said SM Rokon Uddin, district superintendent of police.
The OC was warned following his attack on the journalist and the Additional SP Emran Ali was asked to investigate the matter, added the SP.
Imran’s wife Tahmina Yasmin told The Daily Star that six policemen led by Sub-Inspector M Solaiman came to their house around 1:00am. As it was the dead of night and Imran was not at home, she refused to open the door.
“When they started banging on the door with rifle butts, my father-in-law let them enter the house.”
The policemen ransacked the house but did not say why they were doing so, said Tahmina.
“My six-year-old son was sleeping and they [policemen] pulled the bed in such a way that my child was about to fall.”
Tahmina’s child Nagib Mahfuz was running a temperature as the police activities sent him into a panic.
Contacted, SI M Solaiman refuted the allegations of ransacking and hurling abuses. He said he went to the house as he was appointed as investigation officer of an extortion case against Imran.
The plaintiff of the case is Delwar Hossain, owner of a mobile customer care shop just in front of the police station.
In the case statement, he alleged that Imran demanded Tk 20,000 toll from him on July 11. And that Imran bought a computer table from him for Tk 10,000 six months ago but later refused to pay the price.
Asked why he filed the case so late, Delwar said he used to give Imran Tk 100 to Tk 2,000 at different times as Imran used to threaten to write against him. “When he wrote about me, I lodged the case.”
Imran, however, said Delwar’s allegations are baseless and fabricated and came after the report’s publication on Wednesday.
Talking to The Daily Star, Akbarul Hasan Millat, Sonar Desh executive editor, said Imran in his report mentioned that the OC employed some middlemen across the upazila for collecting bribes.
Without naming the person, the report says a mobile businessman of the Thana Mor is one of the main middlemen. Millat said the report alludes to Delwar.
-With The Daily Star input
