1 held in Chattogram for bringing ‘false’ allegations against police

A fish trader was arrested today for allegedly bringing false allegations against police in Chattogram.

The man had gone to the Kotwali Police Station claiming he was mugged by police, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC South) Polash Kanti Nath of Chattogram Metropolitan Police Station.

The arrestee, Babla Das (30), is a resident of Tankir Pahar area under Khulshi police station in the city.

"He was arrested following a 12-hour long interrogation which started when he came to the police station with a mugging allegation," the ADC said.

"The man is a gambler and he lost money by betting on the Indian Premier League. He confessed that he staged the mugging drama against police to save himself from the creditors."

A day before the arrest (Saturday), a leader of fisher traders' association over phone complained to Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Kotwali Police Station that a team of police snatched Tk 1.13 lakh from Babla after threatening to fabricate him by placing Yaba pills on him, ADC Polash said.

"After the phone call, police started to investigate the matter and the leaders (of fisher traders' association) were asked to come to the police station along with Babla," the ADC said.

"During the investigation, Babla claimed that he was picked up on a blue police van from the DC hill area around 11:00pm of Friday night and was dropped two hours after near New Market area and his money and mobile phone were snatched," the ADC said.

"Babla also said that he was photographed giving Yaba pills and the money before release. Then, we quizzed the on-duty police personnel of Kotwali Police Station but the police personnel denied any such incident from happening. During Babla's interrogation, he said police mugged Tk 50,000 from him raising doubts in us," said the ADC.

But when police started questioning Babla "at one point, he admitted that he plotted the mugging drama to save himself from creditors because he lost money in gambling," the police official said.

Assistant Commissioner (AC) Noble Chakma of CMP's Kotwali Zone said "On receiving complaint [that police mugged, police started to check the CCTV footages of the roads described by Babla but found nothing."

Police officials said Babla had bought fish from one trader Ainuddin on August 1 but did not pay money despite repeated requests. When Ainuddin forced him to pay his money, Babla told him the mugging story as well.

Ainuddin filed a case accusing Babla of embezzling Tk 1.70 lakh with Kotwali Police Station on Saturday, the assistant commissioner said.