Businessman held at DB office for nearly 48 hours, rights activist calls it enforced disappearance

Police have been accused of keeping a businessman from the capital’s Mirpur area in custody for almost 48 hours without acknowledging his whereabouts, before showing him arrested in an Arms Act case.

Mirpur-based sand and land businessman Md Shamim Khan was produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on August 29 by the Detective Branch (DB) of police. Until the evening of August 28, when police contacted his family, they had no information about his whereabouts for nearly 48 previous hours.

An investigation by Daily Waadaa has uncovered several discrepancies in the police account. The case documents themselves contain conflicting arrest times, while CCTV footage shows Shamim being taken away at a different time from those recorded in the documents.

Of the three civilian witnesses named among the four witnesses in the first information report (FIR), none said they had seen the accused. One said police showed him a small pistol, while the other two said they knew nothing about the recovery of a weapon. One of the three also said Shamim had been arrested with yaba. All three were unable to clearly explain when and how they had become witnesses in the case.

The DB official concerned has denied the allegations.

Picked up on August 26

According to the FIR prepared by police, Shamim was arrested at 5:10am on August 28 from the Diabari embankment area in Mirpur, following a tip-off, with a firearm and ammunition. However, the arrest memorandum prepared by police records the date and time of his arrest as 5:10pm on August 25.

Sub-Inspector AKM Niazuddin Molla of the DB filed the case with Shah Ali Police Station.

The FIR states that a pistol, two bullets and a magazine were recovered from Shamim.

However, CCTV footage obtained from a roadside shop and reviewed by Waadaa shows several plainclothes men taking Shamim away on a motorcycle from South Bishil in Mirpur at 8:25pm on August 26, nearly 33 hours before the arrest time stated in the FIR.

Shamim said he was on his way to a mosque for Isha prayers when he was picked up. He alleged that he was blindfolded and taken to the DB office, where he was interrogated and threatened with harm unless he gave up his business. He also claimed that police photographed him standing beside a firearm that had not been recovered from him.

Shamim and eyewitnesses said that at around 8:30pm on August 26, he was heading towards a mosque along a road beside a branch of United Commercial Bank (UCB) in South Bishil, Mirpur-1. On the way, he stopped to speak to an acquaintance, SM Aman. At that point, an unfamiliar man approached him and asked him to step aside for a conversation.

“I did not know the man, so I asked him to say what he wanted to say right there. A short while later, three or four more people gathered around us. Introducing themselves as members of the law enforcement agencies, they said, ‘Sir wants to talk to you. Please come with us.’ Then 10 to 12 people surrounded me,” Shamim told Waadaa.

According to Shamim, he asked them to identify themselves and explain whether there were any allegations against him or an arrest warrant in his name. They did not provide clear answers and repeatedly told him to meet their superior.

At one point, they assured him that they did not want to handcuff him or drag him away, saying he would be treated with respect if he went with them voluntarily.

“Two people then got on a motorcycle with me seated between them. Several other people were on motorcycles nearby. SM Aman was beside me. When he tried to note the motorcycle's registration number, they covered it with a helmet, so he could not record it,” Shamim said.

Waadaa contacted Aman, who corroborated Shamim's account of being taken away.

“Shamim bhai was calling me to go for prayers. Then I saw several people talking to him and taking him away on a motorcycle. I could not see the registration number because they covered it with a helmet,” Aman told Waadaa.

Shamim said the men took him by motorcycle to an area in front of the city corporation office in Mirpur-2, where an old white microbus was parked. He was told to get into the vehicle.

A short while later, several people arrived in a private car, after which he was taken away in the microbus. Shamim initially thought he was being taken to Mirpur Police Station, but was instead taken to the DB office on Minto Road.

“My family members were calling me along the way. My daughter also called, but they (police) did not let me answer. Later, they took my phone away. I became worried because I could not contact anyone in my family,” he said.

More than 60 hours at DB office

Shamim claimed the men's behaviour changed after he was taken to the DB office. An officer instructed him to cover his eyes, and he was blindfolded.

“After they blindfolded me, I became frightened. I had no idea where they were taking me or what they were going to do. I started reciting prayers out of fear. An officer then scolded me and said, ‘Is Allah only yours? Do we not have Allah with us?’ After that, I was taken up and down a flight of stairs,” Shamim said.

He said he was then seated in a room and his blindfold was removed after some time. The room had several desks and glass-enclosed chambers.

According to Shamim, an official who identified himself as the additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of the DB's Mirpur zone, whom he named as Fazle Khoda Palash, spoke to him.

“After asking me a few questions about my background, they asked about my business. I told them that I buy and sell land and fill plots with sand. Then they asked whether I had connections with several people in Mirpur, including alleged criminals named Shahadat and Pial. I told them I had no such connections. I said I ran my business honestly and did not depend on criminals or influential people for protection,” he said.

Shamim said that during the interrogation, he was told he was facing serious trouble and that it would be difficult to save him. He was also told there were instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs and was asked to give up his business.

ADC Fazle Khoda Palash of the DB's Mirpur zone denied the allegations. When contacted by Waadaa, he said Shamim had been arrested and that the FIR contained details of the incident.

Asked about the allegation that Shamim had been held in his office for two days and threatened over his business, Palash said, “I am not aware of any such matter.”

Allegation of being photographed beside a firearm

Shamim alleged that although no firearm had been recovered from him, he was photographed standing beside a weapon while being held at the DB office.

He said he had been kept at the office since being picked up on August 26 and was repeatedly told that his enemies were powerful and that there were orders from higher authorities.

“After hearing this, I started crying. They told me that if I wanted to stay alive, I would have to give up my business. They said I would be killed if I remained outside prison,” Shamim said.

Shamim said that on Friday, August 28, he was taken to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital and brought back with a bandage on his leg to create the impression that he had been injured, although he was physically well.

“First, they wrapped a bandage around my leg and took a photograph. After the picture was sent to someone, they asked where the blood was on my leg. They then wrapped the bandage more tightly and took another photograph,” he said.

He said he was subsequently taken outside the DB office and made to stand in front of a table on which a firearm had been placed. He was photographed beside the weapon.

Shamim said the first photograph was taken while he was wearing a cap, but officers later asked him to remove it and pose for another photograph.

“When I asked the officers about it, they said there was nothing they could do and that the photographs had to be taken,” he said.

Court, remand plea and bail

Shamim said preparations were then made to take him to court. Although he was taken there that day, the court did not accept him because it was already past 4pm, and he was returned to the DB office. The following day, Saturday, he was produced before a court and sent to jail.

Md Monir Hossain Bhuiyan, Shamim's lawyer, said the FIR stated that his client was arrested at 5:10am on August 28, while the police-prepared arrest memorandum recorded the time and date as 5:10pm on August 25. However, CCTV footage shows him being taken away from in front of a shop at 8:25pm on August 26, he added.

“There is a clear discrepancy between the police's account and the CCTV footage regarding the time and place of the arrest,” Monir told Waadaa.

“After Shamim was produced before the court, police sought a seven-day remand. During the remand hearing, I presented these issues in detail before the court. We submitted the relevant video footage to the court,” he said.

“We told the court that if he had been picked up on the night of August 26, the accounts of his arrest on August 25 and August 28 could not both be correct,” he said.

Monir said they sought rejection of the remand plea.

“However, the court hearing the Arms Act case did not have the jurisdiction to grant bail, so the bail issue was not resolved there,” he added.

Although the court rejected the police remand request, it permitted the authorities to interrogate Shamim for one day at the jail gate.

Describing the case as entirely false and saying Shamim had been framed, the lawyer said, “We subsequently applied for bail before the Metropolitan Sessions Court. Following a hearing on September 23, the court granted him bail after considering our arguments and the evidence we presented.”

After completing the prison formalities, Shamim was released on September 26.

Shamim alleged that police did not take him for questioning at the jail gate as ordered by the court and did not speak to him about the matter.

However, police later submitted a report to the court claiming that he had been extensively interrogated at the jail gate and that important information had been obtained.

Weapon, yaba and rehabilitation

The FIR named police officer Ananda Chandra Barman and three other people — Md Osman Molla, Md Aslam Sardar and Md Babu Sardar — as witnesses.

It states that Shamim was searched in the presence of the witnesses and that a foreign-made pistol and two rounds of ammunition were recovered.

Waadaa contacted the three civilian witnesses.

Their accounts revealed uncertainty about the time of the arrest, the alleged recovery of the firearm and the circumstances of the incident.

Asked about Shamim's arrest from the embankment area in Mirpur on August 28, witness Osman Molla told Waadaa, “I was standing there with my motorcycle. A police officer came and asked me to be a witness. They showed me the evidence and told me to sign a paper. There was a small pistol.”

Asked what Shamim looked like, Osman said, “I did not see the accused. He was inside the police vehicle.”

When asked what time of day the arrest took place, he said, “It may have been in the afternoon or after sunset. I don't remember.”

When the reporter pointed out that the FIR stated the arrest had taken place at 5:10am, Osman replied, “Didn't I tell you that I don't remember whether it was in the morning or afternoon? I don't know what I was made a witness to.”

Another witness, Aslam Sardar, gave a different account when asked about Shamim's arrest.

“They found yaba there. There were many people around. They asked for my name and address and took my signature. I don't know whether they made me a witness or what they did,” he said.

Asked whether he had seen a weapon being recovered at the scene, he said, “I did not see whether they found any weapon. They found yaba and some other things, I don't know what.”

When asked whether he had been a witness in any other case at the same location, he said, “No, I have not been a witness in any case.”

Asked when the incident took place, Aslam said he could not remember the date or time. He said he had been ill for nearly three months at the time, suffering from fever and poor mental health, and was still unwell.

“I was having mental health problems at the time. I cannot remember,” he told Waadaa.

The third witness, Babu Sardar, told Waadaa that he was currently in rehabilitation.

Asked how Shamim had been arrested on August 28, he said, “There was a disturbance there. I don't remember the date. I am in rehabilitation, so I cannot talk now.”

He then ended the call.

Family had no information about his whereabouts for almost 48 hours

Shamim's wife, Arobi Sultana, said the family could not establish his whereabouts after he was taken away, despite searching several police stations. The family also traced the last location of his phone to the DB office on Minto Road but said the authorities did not confirm that he was in their custody.

Speaking to Waadaa, Sultana said, “After my husband was taken away on the night of August 26, we searched for him throughout the night but could not find him. When we heard that people identifying themselves as DB officers had taken him away, we searched Darus Salam, Mirpur and several other police stations. We traced his phone's last location to the DB office on Minto Road and went there that night. We showed them the location information, but nobody admitted that my husband was in their custody.”

She said she went to Darus Salam Police Station at around 11am on August 27 and informed the officer-in-charge that her husband was missing.

“I told him I wanted to file a case. The OC said my husband might have gone somewhere. He later said arrangements would be made to collect CCTV footage,” she said.

Sultana said she subsequently went to UCB Bank to request the footage. The bank told her it could provide the footage on Sunday after completing the necessary procedures.

“I still had no information about my husband. Two days had passed. How could I wait until Sunday?” she said, adding that with the help of an acquaintance, she obtained the footage on Thursday, August 27.

“When I watched it, I saw several people taking him away,” she said.

Sultana said she went to Darus Salam Police Station again on August 28 to file a case of abduction but could not find the OC. A police officer on duty checked the documents and told her that her husband had reportedly been arrested by Shah Ali Police Station, advising her to go there. However, the officer kept the documents she had brought.

That afternoon, she received a call from the DB office asking her to go there.

“I went to the DB office around 10am on Saturday (August 29). They returned his phone and wallet to me and took my photograph. When I asked to meet my husband, they said it was not possible and that he would be sent to court that day. I later learned that he was in DB custody when he was taken to court,” she said.

“For those two days, we could not find him anywhere. Neither the DB nor any police station confirmed his whereabouts. We feared that he had been forcibly disappeared or that something had happened to him,” she added.

Business dispute alleged as motive

Shamim said he had previously been a member of the Dhaka North unit of Jubo Dal, the youth wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

He alleged that he was taken away because of a business dispute. He buys and sells land and fills plots with sand in the Kaundia Union area of Savar, where he said he had disputes with several influential local figures.

Shamim said he had recently resumed sand-filling work in one of his business areas before he was taken away. He believes the case was intended to keep him in custody and force him to stop operating in the area.

However, Waadaa could not independently establish whether the alleged business dispute was connected to his arrest.

The DB, meanwhile, claims Shamim was taken in for questioning on August 26, released, and then arrested again on August 28.

Asked about the incident, case complainant Sub-Inspector Niazuddin Molla told Waadaa, “We detained him with a firearm on the morning of August 28. We arrested him from the Diabari embankment area.”

Asked about the CCTV footage showing Shamim being taken away on August 26, Molla said, “A team of ours brought him in, questioned him briefly and released him. We had information that he possessed an illegal firearm, so we were following him.”

He denied holding Shamim for two days.

Rights activist calls detention enforced disappearance

Human rights activist Rezaur Rahman Lenin said detaining someone for more than 24 hours without producing them before a court creates a situation of enforced disappearance.

“The businessman from Mirpur was held for more than 24 hours. Therefore, there is no doubt that he was a victim of temporary enforced disappearance,” he told Waadaa.

“The alleged intimidation and threats against Shamim Khan while he was in DB custody are completely unacceptable. No police officer has the right to threaten anyone in this manner. Using the names of the home minister, the Ministry of Home Affairs or any other ministry to intimidate someone is also illegal. It amounts to an abuse of power and goes against the rule of law,” he said.

Shamim alleged that he and his family had felt unsafe since the incident and that he was afraid to move around freely. He has invested a substantial amount of money in his business and fears losing it if operations remain suspended for a long period.

He said he was now worried about both his family's safety and the future of his business.

“After being released from jail, I did not leave my home for a month and performed my prayers at home out of fear,” he said.

----