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Hospital inside crime hub

Shudipta Sharma
Lack of adequate security facility has turned the compound of the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH) in the capital's Mohakhali area into a haven for criminals.
Activities like robbery, mugging, stealing,
extortion and drug trading have been almost regular incidents here for long.
NIDCH sources said at least 1,500 outsiders including many criminals live illegally in the compound renting houses in the quarters meant
SEE PAGE 19 COL 1 FROM PAGE 1 for class-Ill and -IV employees.
Many of these outsiders are not only involved with petty crimes but have also established control over illegal businesses in the area with the help of a section of NIDCH staff, said the sources, adding that some are also involved in doing business over the tender and recruitment process at NIDCH, which often leads to clashes among the criminals.
Besides, the Sattola slum, infamous for criminal activities, is just next to the hospital. For criminals to get into the compound climbing over the boundary wall and commit crime inside is a child's play, as NIDCH lacks adequate security personnel.
Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan, officer-in-charge of Banani Police Station, also admitted the fact that lack of proper security facility egged on criminal activities there.
“Anybody can easily enter the hospital compound and that is the main security problem there. We investigate if and when anyone files a complaint with us,” said the OC.
According to sources, at least six incidents of robbery took place in the hos-pital compound last month.
Latest, Narayan Chandra Dutta Nitai, 47, assistant professor of
NIDCH, was stabbed to death in his quarters early Thursday.
Relatives of the victim believe this was not an incident of robbery, rather a murder, as criminals were threatening Nitai over recruitments at NIDCH.
Police, however, believe that the criminals entered his home scaling the boundary wall of the compound. His home was next to the wall.
Police arrested four persons in this connection. One of them was picked up from the Sattola slum.
The very day the murder took place, a motorbike of an electrician, Shahjahan, was stolen from the hospital compound around 9:30pm.
Security guard Abdur Rouf, who was on duty at that time, told The Daily Star that no other guard wanted to do duty in the residential zone as snatching and chase and counter chase among criminals happen there almost regularly.
On July 26, robbers took away Tk 2 lakh and 16 tolas of gold from two apartments of class-IV employees around 10:30am.
In another incident, parts of an elevator worth Tk 5 lakh got stolen from Asma Centre of NIDCH on August 8.
Anwar Hossain Liton, a joint secretary of Dhaka city unit Juba league, was shot dead on July 19, 2009
following a dispute over submitting tender documents to NIDCH. Liton was also a contractor and owner of a restaurant.
An assistant professor of NIDCH told The Daily Star that criminals regularly demanded money from doctors in the name of toplisted criminal Shahdat. They had also threatened Nitai last year over recruitments at the hospital, he added.
While visiting the hospital compound yesterday, it was found that most of the class-Ill and -IV employees illegally built tin-shed houses adjacent to their quarters and rented those out to outsiders.
Sources said there were more than 300 such houses where apart from criminals, people like rickshaw pullers and hawkers, live with their families. The house rent ranges between Tk 2,000 and Tk 5,000.
Bashir Ahmed, medical superintendent of NIDCH, said, “We have only 30 security guards. It is very hard to deploy guards at every point of the compound with this manpower.”
He also admitted that criminals might live in the quarters.
"We asked the outsiders to vacant the area several times, but they didn't. We will soon hold a meeting with the law enforcement agencies in this regard,” he added.