Illicit activities of SI Mamun
SI Mamun
When a police officer threatened to falsely implicate her son in a murder case if his extortion demand was not met, Korimon, a 98-year-old vegetable vendor of Fatullah, sold all her worldly possessions. The six corrugated tins of the widow's hut, a calf and a tiny gold ornament fetched Tk 20,000, the amount Sub-inspector (SI) Mamun Sirajul Haque demanded. “I gave the money to Mamun in two installments, once at the police station and then at his residence,†Karimon, a resident of Kumarkhali village in Sirajdikhan upazila, told The Daily Star recently. “I begged him to return at least half of the money as my sons had deserted me and my health was not permitting me to hawk vegetables anymore. But Mamun left the police station on his transfer without returning anything,†she said. SI Mamun was transferred to Rapid Action Battalion from Fatullah Police Station between 2004 and 2006. Once being posted back to the police station in October 2010, news of the extortion reached the local press club. Fatullah Press Club President Syed Obaidullah and other journalists and locals came forward to hold a mediation and managed to recover Tk 2,000. Obaidullah told The Daily Star that SI Mamun, before him and his colleagues, had assured to return the money to Korimon before being transferred from Fatullah. But next month, SI Mamun was transferred to Tangail Police Station and he did not keep his word, he added. What happened to Korimon is not a stray incident. In 2010, SI Mamun arrested three local journalists -- Mamunur Rashid Sumon, Mohsin and Russel -- from a tea stall before Fatullah Police Lines. Sumon told The Daily Star that SI Mamun took him to Fatulla Police Station and, drawing three Tk 500 notes from his pocket, told the officer-in-charge (OC) that he had caught Sumon red-handed extorting from one Faruque. Apparently SI Mamun suspected that the journalists were behind a report on the area's drug peddlers published in Sangbad Charcha, a local newspaper, said Sumon. That day, Faruque, a well-known drug peddler, filed a case with the speedy trial tribunal falsely accusing the trio of threatening to publish fabricated news reports about him if he did not give in to their extortion demand, he said. “In the case statement, Phensedyl peddlers Faruque and Mamun mentioned that Faruque's two cousins witnessed the alleged crime. But in reality, both witnesses had left for the capital early that day to fly abroad,†said Sumon. The three of them were acquitted by a Narayanganj court in January this year, he added. When contacted on December 13, SI Mamun, however, denied even knowing Korimon and repeated what he had said to the OC. Narayanganj Superintendent of Police Nazmul Alam told The Daily Star that they were not happy with SI Mamun's performance. The story does not end here. SI Mamun is popularly known to many of his colleagues in Tangail as “Phensi Mamun†due to his addiction to Phensedyl, a banned Indian drug, and is alleged to be involved in illicit drug trading. A top police officer in Tangail, preferring anonymity, said Mamun once had deliberately tried to cover up his recovery of several hundred bottles of Phensedyl in Tangail. He handed over the drugs to be impounded only after departmental action was taken against him, said the officer. Being transferred to Siddhirganj Police Station in January this year did not stop SI Mamun. On December 11, he attacked and detained Amran Hossain, senior staff photographer of The Daily Star, and Sourav Laskar, staff photographer of New Age, while the duo were covering the opposition's hartal in Siddhirganj area of Narayanganj. Mamun has been closed to Narayanganj Police Lines for allegedly leading the attack. An investigation by Narayanganj police is going on.
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