Student leader, associates sued over extortion attempt in Tongi

A case has been filed against Akash Khan, 22, member-secretary of the Tongi East Police Station unit of the Student Against Discrimination, and several of his associates for allegedly trying to extort Tk 20 lakh by threatening to file a false case.

On Friday, Shirin Sarkar Kana, 48, submitted a written complaint to Tongi East Police Station, naming six people and 12 unidentified accused, confirmed its Officer-in-Charge Faridul Islam.

The named accused are Akash Khan, Imtiaz Shuvo, 22, Moktar, 20, Iftekhar Shuvo, 21, Asif, 20, and Piyash Ghosh Prince, 22.

A 19-minute-14-second video recorded on Thursday night shows people confronting Akash in front of Tongi East Police Station, asking why he "went to the woman's house and demanded a ransom of Tk 20 lakh from her husband" and "why he brought Tk 26,000 from there".

In reply, Akash is heard saying, "I did not take the money, the boys next to me took it."

"At 11:40pm, a case has been registered. Police are working to arrest the accused," Inspector (Investigation) Atiqur Rahman told The Daily Star yesterday.

In her complaint, Shirin said around 10:30pm on Wednesday, the accused came to her home on Sher Bangla Road in Madhya Arichpur, claiming to be SAD leaders.

They said four cases were pending against her husband Abul Hossain and demanded Tk 20 lakh to "solve" them. The men allegedly threatened to abduct her husband if the money was not paid, it said.

Fearing harm, the family agreed to pay Tk 5 lakh. As they did not have that amount at home, the men pressured them and left with Tk 25,000 in cash after Shirin signed a bond.

The next morning, when they could not find the family, the accused phoned her son demanding the full sum and threatened to file a false case, send them to jail, and kill or injure them, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, on Friday afternoon the Gazipur district branch of SAD suspended all its police-station and ward committees "indefinitely", according to a press release signed by acting convener Nabil Al Walid.

The statement said the district committee "will not be responsible" if any member abuses his position and pledged to assist in "all kinds of legal action" against wrongdoings.