HARDLY the protest and indignation against the barbarous ’ killing of Rubel in police custody about eight moths back have died down, the Detective Branch (DB) of the law enforcement agency has again come in for scrutiny. A decomposed corpse found in the roof-top water tank at the DB Headquarters in Dhaka on March 25. last has awakened the citizenry to the callous way the guardians of law and order are handling crime situations in the country. Far from being happy about the disclosure of the Police Commissioner that the incident was mysterious and it was impossible for any outsider without the help of or without being abetted by police to dump the body inside the watertank. the public want an answer to such dastardly acts that continue to tarnish the image of the police, or more precisely the image of a democratic government.

The involvement of the DB personnel working at the Minto Road office is further confirmed when people hear senior police officials say that they suspected the victim was alive when he was taken to the roof top. DB officials are reported to have said that considering the narrow access and the iron ladder approach to the rooftop of the building which is visible from

the surrounding areas, it was unlikely that the deadman could be dumped in the watertank without being noticed by the passers-by. As further report about the gruesome murder of the unidentified person reveals that the cause of death might have been an acrimony over sharing of the dollars recovered or anything like that from a dubious currency businessman. the incident has caused obvious concern among the peace-loving citizens who look up to the police, more so to the Detective Brach, for a safe and secure life notably in unearthing the ugly corners of the crime zones. This incident again has unearthed the rot in the low enforcement sector and has further damaged the image of the police force beyond repair.

Shockingly, a continuous barrage of scandals involving the police have given rise to many questions and Stoked fears about the crimes committed. more so — abetted by members of the law enforcement agency. Whom would you call

for help when it is the police you fear most of all? For millions of ordinary Bangladeshis, the question is far from academic. Hardly a day passes without a report of brutal misconduct by the sap[>osed public guardians. Credible stories abound of ordinary citizens dying under torture while in police custody and of women raped by police personnel. Amid a heightening controversy over the rape of a British woman somewhere at a thana in Gulshan area in the middle of December. 1998. an enquiry conducted by the BHRC (Bangladesh Human Rights Commission) revealed another incident of rape of a foreign woman allegedly by four policemen at the police box at Gulshan Road No 104 on June 26, 1996.

Although the patrol Inspector denied the allegation, of course not a competent authority from whom such denial should have come, the fact remains that following the incident Havildar (No 3368) Shahidul Islam of Gulshan police box was suspended from duty and another Havildar (No 13558) Abul Kashem was demoted to sepoy. The statement did not say what actions were

taken against the remaining two policemen involved in the incident. The action construed to he very mild by any measure gives rise to questions as to why such measure was at all taken if the cops had no complicity in the crime.

People already know the all pervasive extortion spree by musclemen working under the secret protection and blessings of some political "gurus" with the advent of either the mango season or Eid-ul Azha when traders from the far-flung areas of northern and southern parts of the country carry their merchandise to the Dhaka city markets.

But how come, as the reports published in the newspaper sug-Sest that, the police personnel eployed in all these haats. ghats and bazars to protect the innocent traders from the clutches of extortionists and musclemen would themselves be a party unto them? Reports have it that police personnel forming an alliance with musclemen were engaged in collecting tolls putting up road barriers on the highway the traders carried their cattle through to Dhaka bazars and haats before Eid-ul Azha. Reports from' a trader carrying bullocks from

North Bengal in a lorry have it that his truck was stopped at least at three stations by these cohesive groups and he was forced to pay tolls between Tk 20-25 per head at each station.

Shockingly true, in a country where there were scores of re-Korted cases of police rapes.

eating and atrocities committed while in police custody, it seems there is little protection against predatory police. It is likely that while some incidents of atrocities and rapes recently unearthed by BHRC. countless others would have gone undetected and the perpetrators unpunished except that these groups would have treaded in.

Murders, muggings, rapes and all types of crimes have soared alarmingly in the country, with as many as more than 20 deaths alone occurring in police custody in the last year, according to a report released by a Human Rights Organisations. Add to this police excesses in either extracting confessions or in dealing with agitating crowds during hartal days. Human rights advocates warn that the true toll is far higher because many incidents in • accessible rural areas steeped in poverty and illiteracy go hushed up. But the natural and international clamour against police brutality in the country is growing too loud to ignore. Both Amnesty International and other Human Rights watch have called upon the governments from time to time to do something to protect citizens from the police. So said a former Supreme Court Judge "Police (are) becoming the biggest violators of human rights."

In fact, decades of political meddling have left the country's police force unaccountable to any higher authority or to the public. During the draconian. Ershad regime police were given unlimited power to stifle the political opposition : authorities just turned and closed their eyes as the police resorted to sadistic tortures to elicit confession. . That was the case when during the Ershad regime the police forced a speeding truck through the agitating students killing two on the spot. The abuse continues unabated. The Special Powers Act. condemned by all parties while in opposition, is still in force in the country. This law condemned by all civil-rights leaders gave police virtually unlimited powers to search premises and detain suspects for any reason whatsoever.

People now feel that the much-abused section 54 of the CrPC and other clauses of law dating back to colonial times giving wide and sweeping powers to the police to arrest a person on

suspicion or by force must be scrapped now. People now demand meting out of severe and deterrent punishment to the proven executioners of human rights in the garb of custodians of public security at the expense of tax-payers' money.

The country’s courts are still miles away in trying to tame police brutality. But in the neighbouring country India, courts have been much more active in establishing the rule of law. Reports have it that in a landmark ruling in the recent past the Supreme Court of India awarded $ 3,500 to the mother of one Suman Behara a young farmer arrested for theft in Orissa who died while being tortured in police custody. Calling the act "perhaps the worst crimes in a civilized society", the court also ordered the state to prosecute the police perpetrators. rather than let them off with the usual handslap like transfers and postings in some obscure places for some time allowing the wounds to heal up.

The report of Mujibur's death due to lynching and pounding with rods under water in a jheel in Bashabo area while he was fleeing to evade arrest in the recent past at Sabujbagh thana area and such other countless cases, are damaging the reputation of police force and also putting the government in power in a poor light. To be sure, it is not only the question of the image of the police that is at stake but also the reputation of a democratic government. These days, citizens’ concent is the lack of security of the disadvantaged ones, namely women and children who are abused not only by criminals but also by what is worse, the members of the police force. This is not to say that all members of the force are bad but some of them and a rising number of them are bringing bad name to the entire force. To put things straight. Rubel's murder In police custody. Sheema Chowdhury's rape and lates death in police custody. Mu-jibur's death by dry-drowning in a jheel and lastly the corpse found in the roof-top tank of DB in the police headquarters are a collective blot on the conscience of the police force or more truly the conscience of a democratic government. But alas! where indeed is the conscience of this country that such crimes could be perpetrated in the first place? Truly, the attitude of the government in condoning the acts Is more dangerous than the brutal acts themselves. It is time the executive and the Judiciary woke up from their slumber. While the present government has been struggling hard to put democracy on a sound footing, so far it has shown little stomach for attempting the difficult job of protecting its own people from the police, not to speak of other hardened criminals.

The writer is Controller of Examination, BUET.