A narcotics control taskforce yesterday arrested four persons including three Detective Branch (DB) constables with 954 bottles of smuggled Indian Phensidyl from a drug trading spot in Rajpara area of Rajshahi.

The arrested members of DB of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) are Abdus Samad, 33, of Shingra, M Lalon Mahmud, 27, of Gurudaspur in Natore district, and Siddikul Islam, 35, of Kurigram.

The arrested police members were suspended and departmental proceedings were drawn against them, said M Moniruzzaman, additional commissioner of RMP.

The other arrestee is autorickshaw driver Saiful Islam, 36, ofMotihararea.

All four were taken into custody after Bhupoti Kumar Barman, an inspector of Department of Narcotics Control,filed a case against them with Rajpara Police Station under the Narcotics Control Act of1990.

Acting on a tip off, the taskforce led by Executive Magistrate Md Alamgir Kabir caught the four in an autorickshaw at 2:40am with the botdes ofPhensidyl.

They seized the Phensidyl botdes from Tangon, a drug-smuggling zone under Modhar police station, and instead of going to DB office and bypassing other police stations they took the botdes to the drug trading spot, alleged Bhupoti in the case.

"They took the Phensidyl to sell to local drug peddlers and we were informed that they do it frequendy," he told The Daily Star.

Bhupoti said the policemen claimed the botdes were seized in a raid but they could not produce any command certificate or seizure-list.

Moreover, the plainclothes officers did not have any kind of identity card with them, he said.

However, a Special Branch (SB) report following the incident held Tofazzal Hossain, officer-in-charge

(OC) of DB, responsible for it.

“If he was not negligent, the crime would not have taken place," said M Rokonuzzaman, assistant commissioner of SB.

Rokonuzzaman, also assistant commissioner of DB, told The Daily Star that Tofazzal took verbal permission from him on Thursday morning to conduct the raid but did not update after sending eight DB constables for the raid.

Piarul Islam, one of the eight constables, told this correspondent that they seized the bottles from a paddy field after the smugglers fled from the spot.

Samad and Lalon, who were communicating with the OC over the cell phone, stopped the policemen at Kataldtali while they were returning from the raid.

“At Katakhali, Samad and Lalon quoting the OC told us to go home and they would take the seized goods to DB office. We went home and a few hours later learnt the three were arrested,” Piarul said.

OC Tofazzal Hossain could not be contacted for comments.

However, Rokonuzzaman said Tofazzal told him that he ordered the police officers to bring the goods back to DB office but was not aware that they had gone to the drug trading spot.