¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

A case has been filed against the officer-in-charge of Chattogram’s Pahartali police station and three other police officers, along with four others, on charges of extortion, torture, and looting. 

On Tuesday noon, the court of third metropolitan magistrate, Md Alamgir Hossain, accepted the case and issued the directive for the Criminal Investigation Department to investigate the charges and submit a report within 15 days, said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Md Ashraful Rahman.

The lawyer said that the case was filed against eight individuals, including Pahartali OC Babul Azad and three sub-inspectors.

Under OC Babul Azad’s leadership, the accused officers demanded Tk 10 crore from businessman Mamun Ali.

When he refused, they framed him in a false case, took him into custody, tortured him, and looted his depot. 

Plaintiff Mamun Ali, also known as King Ali, is linked to Bangladesh Nationalist Party politics. He was arrested on October 17, 2024, following allegations of vandalism and looting at a business establishment after he refused to pay extortion money.

Later, the BNP expelled him from the party on October 19. 

In the case, Mamun Ali named Pahartali Police station OC Babul Azad as the primary accused. The others accused in the case are Pahartali sub-inspector Manik Ghosh, Bandar police station SI Asadul Haque, SI Kishore Majumder, SS Trading’s owner Saiful Islam Sumon, Manager Arif Moinuddin, Deputy Manager Md Aman, and Supervisor Didar Hossain Sajib. 

According to the case statement, on October 10, 2023, Mamun Ali purchased 20,000 tonnes of stone from GH Enterprise in the Bandar area in Chattogram for Tk 5.6 crore and stored it at his depot in Pahartali’s Toll Road area under King Ali Group. 

On October 17 of past year, the accused allegedly obstructed operations at the depot.

At one point, the accused demanded money from him. 

When Mamun refused to pay, SI Manik Ghosh pressured him to come to the police station at about 10:00pm, the case said. He was allegedly detained at the station.

When contacted, Pahartali police station OC Babul Azad declined to comment on the case. 

Meanwhile, the accused police officers claimed they were falsely implicated in the case.

SI Manik Ghosh, the second accused in the case, said, ‘After the political shift, King Ali attempted to seize land belonging to Mohammad Trading in Pahartali.’ 

Kishore Majumder, then a sub-inspector of Bandar police station and now posted at Bakalia police station, an accused in the case said, ‘I investigated a land-related case against King Ali and submitted a report against him. Since then, he had a grudge against me.’