So, the members of the Detective Branch (DB), one the country's prime intelligence agencies, have been applying their specialised intelligence for special purposes. The special purpose in the latest case is extortion of ransom money by abducting a businessman. Involved here is a seven-member team that picked up a blanket trader of Teknaf from a Cox's Bazar hotel. As high an amount of ransom as Tk 5,000,000 was demanded from his family for the trader's release. Negotiations carried out however made the two sides to settle for Tk 1,700,000. He was threatened with crossfire unless his family obliged. Following payment of the money, the trader was released.
Until then the illegal operation went on smoothly for the DB team. But the intelligence men had no inkling that the trader's family not only negotiated with them for slashing the ransom money but also informed the army now on duty there for coordination of relief operation for the Rohingya. Its check post was barely 500 metres away from where the trader was released on the Marine Drive road. When the party was halted and searched at the check post, the ransom money was found intact in the vehicle. Six of the team were detained then and there and one managed to escape.
Now this is not for the first time that teams from law enforcement agencies have been involved in similar abduction and ransom collection operations. Another team was found committing a similar crime in the capital's Shahbagh area a few years ago. The members were put on trial but what punishment was meted out did not receive wide media coverage. The police high-ups have often lamented that the entire force has to suffer image crisis for the villainous acts of a few.
True, such things do not happen every other day but there is no knowing how often those take place. In the Cox's Bazar case, the trader happened to be a younger brother to Teknaf municipality mayor. Most likely the mayor had the presence of mind to contact the army and fortunately the latter responded promptly enough to catch the DB team red-handed. Not all abducted are lucky enough to receive help from the army or any other superior authorities. Chances of such cases going unreported are very high.
What the men in uniform here do is a crime graver than any civilian commits in a similar situation. They are supposed to be protectors of the civilians in need. Duty- and pledge-bound, law enforcers can under no circumstances act like criminal gangs. They dishonour the uniform which is a symbol of dedication and trust. Dereliction of duty is crime enough but when they get involved in crimes in a calculative manner, the extent of rot can be imagined.
Punishment meted out to the rogue members has failed to be a deterrent to such crimes. Why? Because, there are other aberrations within the forces. For example, money extorted from footpath vendors is shared at different levels of the political and law enforcement hierarchies. Such knowledge does not help stem the rot because the weakness is within. Unless or until the Augean stable can be cleaned completely, there will always remain the temptation for some morally weak members to go for such criminal operations.
