Cop lands in prison over bribe

A Cox's Bazar court yesterday sent an inspector-ranked police official to jail on charge of taking bribe for recording a case four years ago.

Judge Mir Shafiqul Alam of the Cox's Bazar District and Sessions Judge's Court passed the order after Altaf Hossain, former officer-in-charge of Kutubdia police, had surrendered before him and sought bail.

The court also fixed June 26 as the next date of hearing.

Altaf served as the OC of Companyganj police till October 21 last year and was later transferred to the Police Bureau of Investigation, insiders said.

He was wanted in a case filed by one Jamila Akhter on charge of taking the bribe to file a case while he was the OC in Kutubdia in 2014.

According to the case statement, Faridul Alam, an employee of local land office, was killed allegedly by his wife Rokeya Begum Daisy and his son Ohidul Alam on June 18, 2014.

Faridul's mother Nurjahan Begum wanted to file a murder case with Kutubdia police, but Altaf allegedly demanded Tk 1 lakh for it, the case statement reads.

Nurjahan allegedly gave him Tk 50,000 through Sub-Inspector SIBM Kamal Hossain, but the case was not recorded. The police allegedly took a handsome amount of money from Ohidul and registered the case accusing Nurjahan and her two sons Iskandar Mirza and Mahbub Alam.

The two siblings served around six months behind bars in connection with the case filed by Ohidul.

In the meantime, Iskandar's wife Jamila filed a case on July 20, 2014 with a Cox's Bazar court accusing OC Altaf and SI Kamal for taking bribe and helping the plaintiff file a “false case”.

The court took the case into cognisance and asked the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the matter. ACC investigation officer Ajoy Ghosh on March 15 last year submitted charge sheet against the two police officials. The court accepted the charge sheet and issued arrest warrants against them.

ACC lawyer Abdur Rahim said Altaf took the plaintiff along with him in the court yesterday. The plaintiff informed the court in written that the matter had been resolved through social arbitration.

SI Kamal has yet to surrender before the court.