Police case tells one story, CCTV footage another

The police account begins at 3:50am on a road in central Chattogram.

Detective Branch officers had set up a temporary checkpoint on Marine Drive Road in Firingi Bazar, about a kilometre from Kotwali Police Station, according to a narcotics case filed on September 5.

A passengerless minibus approached. Police signalled it to stop. The driver jumped through a window and escaped. Officers searched the vehicle and found a black shopping bag beneath the driver's seat containing 4,000 yaba pills.

But CCTV footage, toll records and interviews reviewed by Daily Waadaa for this report place the same minibus in the police company more than three hours earlier, and about 15 kilometres away.

The records raise questions about when and where the bus was first intercepted, what happened before the reported seizure and why the police case contains no account of those hours.

Sources familiar with the incident make a more serious allegation: that the bus was carrying about 2 lakh yaba pills, valued at roughly 4 crore taka, when it was stopped in Patiya.

They allege that the driver was released after money changed hands and that most of the drugs disappeared before police filed a case showing a seizure of 4,000 pills.

Those allegations could not be independently established from the CCTV footage alone. But the footage establishes a timeline that differs substantially from the one recorded in the police case.

A stop in Patiya

The vehicle of the aforementioned case was a minibus registered as Dhaka Metro-Jha-11-0311.

At 11:58pm on September 4, CCTV footage shows it passing Shah Amanat Filling Station in Patiya. Behind it were a vehicle belonging to Chattogram Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch and a black microbus belonging to Palash, identified by sources as a DB source.

Eight minutes later, another camera captured the minibus entering Amin Ullah Trading Corporation filling station at Patiya Crossing from the Cox's Bazar-Patiya highway.

The footage provides a detailed record of what followed. At 12:06:40am, the bus entered the station. A motorcycle pulled up beside it.

Seconds later, the black microbus arrived and stopped on the bus's left. Three men carrying bags approached from the main road. A man got out of the black microbus and ran towards the bus.

At 12:07:55am, a grey microbus arrived and stopped on the other side. More motorcycles followed.

The footage shows about 18 or 19 people gathering around the bus. Several appear to be carrying bags.

At 12:23am, the rear of the minibus was opened. At 12:27am, a man can be seen lying beneath the vehicle as he apparently searches it.

Two minutes later, a person carried an object towards the black microbus and placed it inside. The search continued until around 12:31am.

At 12:37:13am, footage shows another object being placed in the rear of the black microbus. Shortly afterwards, the vehicles began to leave.

The motorcycles headed towards Chattogram at 12:42:41am, followed by the minibus. At 12:47:45am, the grey microbus, another motorcycle and the black microbus also left in the direction of the city.

‘There were no passengers’

Kayes, an employee of the filling station, said he saw a black microbus, a grey vehicle marked CMP and seven or eight motorcycles chase the minibus into the station.

There were no passengers inside the bus, he said.

Some of the people pursuing it were carrying walkie-talkies. According to Kayes, the driver fled after seeing them.

The group then spent an extended period searching the minibus before taking it towards Chattogram. Toll records provide the next documented point in the journey.

At 12:53am, the minibus crossed the Shah Amanat Bridge toll plaza.

Four minutes later, the DB vehicle marked CMP-131 passed through. Immediately behind it was Palash's black microbus, registered as Chatta Metro-Cha-11-6872.

The three vehicles travelled towards Chattogram without paying tolls, according to the toll records.

The police case does not mention the Patiya stop.

Three hours unaccounted for

The toll plaza is about 4.5 kilometres from Firingi Bazar, the location where police say the operation occurred.

According to the case statement, officers stopped the minibus at 3:50am on September 5 at a temporary checkpoint on Marine Drive Road, opposite an Ansar duty shed beside the BIWTA office.

Police recorded the recovery of the 4,000 yaba pills at 4:05am.

That leaves nearly three hours between the minibus crossing into the city at 12:53am — accompanied closely by vehicles linked to DB — and its reported interception at 3:50am.

The case statement does not explain that interval.

Investigators also found that the black microbus associated with Palash left Chattogram again at 2:54am. Sources allege the journey was connected to the disappearance of the larger yaba consignment.

The available CCTV footage does not establish what was inside the vehicle.

Unanswered questions

Another discrepancy concerns the driver's escape.

The case statement says that when police signalled the minibus to stop, its driver jumped through the window beside his seat and fled.

But an examination of the vehicle shows a dedicated door immediately beside the driver's seat.

The account does not explain why the driver would have escaped through the window rather than the door.

Questions also surround the two men listed as witnesses to the seizure.

The principal witness is named in police documents as Md Rifat, son of Md Shahjahan, from the Loityaghata area of Firingi Bazar.

The second is identified as Md Mahmud Hasan Mahiyan, son of Nur Alam, from the same area.

Telephone numbers are listed for both men. Both numbers were switched off when contacted by Waadaa.

During visits to Loityaghata, at least 30 residents and shopkeepers were shown photographs and identifying information for the two men by the Waadaa correspondent. None recognised them.

Checks on the telephone numbers produced further discrepancies.

The number listed for Rifat was registered to Md Rajib, whose father is Abdul Kader. The number attributed to Mahmud was registered to a person named Md Alam.

The names, addresses and telephone records associated with the seizure witnesses therefore do not align.

Several shops operate near the location where DB says the minibus was stopped. People interviewed there could not confirm seeing the operation described in the case.

One shopkeeper, Nurul Haque, described a broader practice.

DB officers sometimes come to the area and ask people to sign documents as witnesses in cases, he told Waadaa. The seized items are not necessarily shown to them.

Waadaa later found out that the CMP-131 vehicle seen that night was driven by Constable Mehedi Hasan, with Constable Md Monirul Islam in the passenger seat. Both were attached to DB North Zone.

Asked about the incident, Mehedi Hasan acknowledged being at a filling station outside the city to Waadaa. He however didn’t give reply to any further questions.

Md Monirul Islam didn’t want to talk to Waadaa correspondent.

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