Md. Anisur Rahman Shelly:
Local resident S.M. Mamunur Rashid is suffering from extreme insecurity after being subjected to extortion, truck hijacking and beating in Kalihati, Tangail. Sensational allegations have been made that he was subjected to extreme harassment, bribe demands and harassment by the then Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Kalihati Police Station, Tawfiq Azam, while seeking legal assistance.
​S.M. Mamunur Rashid, a resident of Satutia village of Kalihati Municipality, raised these allegations while reading a written statement at a press conference organized at the Kalihati Reporters Unity office on Wednesday (July 29) afternoon.
In his written statement, Mamunur Rashid said that he filed an extortion case against the accused in the court on January 14 this year. Enraged by this, the accused kidnapped the driver of two drum trucks and his son Md. Sihab from Dhlatengar Balughat on April 29 and took them to Nikrail Bazar. Although his son Sihab managed to escape, the terrorists severely beat up the two trucks and the two drivers. Later, they released the drivers by forcibly signing blank cartridge papers, but they kept the two vehicles hostage.
​Immediately after the incident, when he went to Kalihati Police Station to file a case, the police refused to accept the case. The next day, on April 30, he went to Tangail Superintendent of Police (SP) along with Shafi Khan, former chairman of Kokdohra UP of the upazila, and gave details. When he went to file a case again at Kalihati Police Station on the instructions of the SP, the then OC Toufiq Azam demanded a bribe of 1,50,000/- (one lakh fifty thousand) taka in exchange for taking the case. When he refused to pay the bribe, OC Toufiq Azam insulted and misbehaved by tagging him as a ‘fascist Awami League’ and threw him out of the police station.
Later, despite a few days of delay due to the weekend and the death of a lawyer, he filed a case in the Tangail court on May 4. The court took cognizance of the case and ordered Kalihati Police Station to treat it as an FIR. On May 5, the victim submitted a copy of the case to the police station and accepted the received copy.
However, it was alleged that since the case was filed, SI Rabbani, on the instructions of OC Toufiq Azam, demanded all the documents of the car. Even after submitting the documents, the two cars were not returned and were seized at Kalihati Police Station. Later, on May 19, the victim picked up the copy of the case and saw that two cars had been seized from the field south of Kalihati Police Station on May 7. Instead of calling any representative of the municipality as witnesses, the accused used their partners as witnesses as they wished. It is to be noted that according to the locals, no such field exists south of Kalihati Police Station. It is alleged that OC Toufiq Azam directly helped the accused get out on bail by preparing fake documents through illegal transactions.
​At the press conference, the victim further said that on the night of May 17, on the way back from the village, the police chased him on the orders of the OC. Finding no other way out, he was forced to leave his motorcycle on the bank of the river and spend the night hiding in a paddy field in the pouring rain.
​Later, when he recorded a video of his plea and posted it on the social media platform Facebook, the journalistic community became vocal about the matter and stood by him.
Addressing the journalists and administration present at the press conference, S.M. Mamunur Rashid said in an emotional voice, “While the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies is to protect the common people, the OC of the police station himself is conspiring to destitute me and my family by colluding with extortionists. I strongly demand a fair and impartial investigation into the false seizure list and bribe demands.
He drew the attention of higher authorities to exemplary punishment of the accused involved in the incident, recovery of the hijacked drum truck and taking administrative action against the accused police officers.
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