Harassment of teacher: Police yet to identify the ‘cop’

Police could not yet identify the "cop in uniform" who harassed and hurled abuse at a female teacher of Tejgaon College after seeing a "teep" on her forehead while she was going to the campus on Saturday morning.

Multiple teams of police are working to identify the man, Biplob Kumar Sarkar, deputy commissioner (Tejgaon division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star yesterday. "The woman mentioned six digits of the motorbike. Based on that, we identified two motorbikes in the Dhaka Metro series -- L and H," he said.

One of them said, his motorbike with the "L" series got stolen in 2016 in Gulshan when he went there for visa-related work. He also filed a general diary with Gulshan Police Station.

The "H" series motorcycle is registered to an individual in Mirpur. When police went to the address, they found that he had moved nearly three months ago. The landlord told the police that he was not a cop.

The Tejgaon DC said they are also looking into motorbikes, registered outside of Dhaka.

He said they were collecting CCTV footage of all streets leading away from the place of occurrence. It was seen that the accused went towards Bangla Motor.

In a general diary filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, Lata Samaddar, a lecturer of theatre and media studies at Tejgaon College, said the incident took place in front of Shezan Point shopping mall around 8:30am.

"A policeman in uniform was sitting there on a parked motorbike. When I was passing by, he started harassing me, seeing a teep on my forehead and hurling abuse at me. As I protested, he started the bike and tried to run me over. I tried to move away but got injured severely by falling," said Lata, who is the wife of Dhaka University professor Malay Bala.

She also mentioned the bike's number in the complaint.

After the incident, she went to three on-duty traffic policemen who advised her to file the complaint, she added. One of the policemen told reporters that the accused was in police uniform.

OUTRAGE ALL AROUND

Different rights organisations demanded a proper probe into the incident and sought exemplary punishment of the alleged cop.

In a statement yesterday, Amrai Pari Paribarik Nirjaton Protirodh Jot (WE CAN Alliance to end Domestic Violence) said this incident shows that the member of the force engaged in public security is behaving against the constitution and the spirit of the Liberation War.

Naripokkho demanded immediate arrest and trial of the perpetrator while forming a human chain in front of their office in Dhanmondi.

Bangladesh Nari Pragati Sangha in a statement said a police officer must ensure that the law and order situation is not harmed and assist the citizen. But he [the accused] clearly violated the constitutional conditions of service of the republic, which is a serious crime in any consideration.

In another statement, Bangladesh Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad demanded the arrest of the "responsible cop" within 72 hours.

The incident also triggered a huge outcry on social media where people condemned the incident. Many women shared pictures with teep on their foreheads as a form of protest.