Police found the Yaba. Then both the drugs and the case disappeared
At 7 pm on October 28, Sohel Hawlader boarded a bus in Chattogram, carrying 1,600 yaba tablets concealed on his body. He was heading to Bagerhat, where he planned to sell the drugs.
He never made it out of the city.
Police stopped the bus near City Gate, took him into custody and brought him to a diagnostic centre. An X-ray revealed packet-like objects inside his body, consistent with his account of carrying drugs.
Things that happened over the next two and a half hours however have raised serious questions about the conduct of officers from Akbar Shah Police Station.
Sohel alleged that the officers drove him to a secluded location, threatened to kill him in a staged crossfire and seized the 1,600 yaba tablets along with 81,000 taka in cash.
They then took him for another X-ray. This time, nothing was found.
By 9:30 pm, Sohel was free. No arrest was recorded. No drug seizure was reported, as Daily Waadaa found out.
CCTV footage obtained by Waadaa from two diagnostic centres corroborates key parts of the sequence, including the police visits and the suspect's presence.
Those have painted some questionable actions by the Chattagram police.
Two X-rays, two different results
The operation began when officers stopped an SP Greenline bus travelling from Chattogram to Bagerhat.
Sohel had boarded at Alankar intersection. Police intercepted the vehicle near City Gate, searched it and ordered him to get off. He was placed in a police vehicle and taken to Golden Diagnostic Centre.
CCTV footage shows the vehicle arriving at 7:01 pm.
A plainclothes informant got out first. A uniformed constable escorted Sohel upstairs to the X-ray room.
Six minutes later, the constable returned to the vehicle and informed Sub-Inspector Rabiul Hossain that the scan had detected suspected yaba packets. He also showed Rabiul a photograph of the X-ray report on his phone.
Rabiul went upstairs. Two other officers followed. As the group came downstairs, Constable Halim took Sohel's mobile phones.
They left together in the police vehicle.
"Police brought the man here for an X-ray in the evening,"Apple Mohammad, an employee of Golden Diagnostic Centre told Waadaa. "He had yaba on him, and packet-like objects were visible in the X-ray image."
The vehicle then headed towards the Outer Ring Road, according to CCTV footage. Sohel said the officers drove him to a secluded location near DC Park.
There, he alleged, they threatened to kill him in a staged police shooting unless he cooperated.
He said the officers removed 1,600 yaba tablets wrapped in yellow tape and concealed around a sensitive part of his body. They also took 81,000 taka from his pocket, he alleged.
The officers subsequently brought him to Al-Amin Diagnostic Centre near AK Khan intersection. CCTV footage places three officers, an informant and Sohel inside the centre's X-ray room at 8:05 pm.
The second scan produced a different result.
"Nothing was visible in his stomach or elsewhere in his body," an employee of Al-Amin Diagnostic Centre told Waadaa.
The employee said the earlier scan data had since been deleted. The centre regularly conducts X-rays on suspects brought in by Akbar Shah police, the employee added.
Sohel said the officers returned him to their vehicle after the second examination.
He alleged that they warned him this was his last chance.
Constable Halim then recorded a video statement in which Sohel said police had found neither drugs nor money in his possession, according to Sohel.
His phones were returned. His SIM cards and 81,000 taka were not, he alleged. Sohel said he had no money left to travel. Rabiul gave him 500 taka for transport.
At approximately 9:30 pm, the officers dropped him outside Faujdarhat Nursing College. They drove away.
A police patrol with no seizure
Police station records identify Rabiul as the officer assigned to the "Sierra-44 (Day)" patrol on October 28.
Four constables accompanied him. Halim drove the vehicle, bearing registration number CMP-183. An informant was also attached to the team.
Rabiul acknowledged that Sohel had been taken to both diagnostic centres.
"The X-ray at Golden Diagnostic Centre did not provide a clear picture," he told Waadaa. "That is why we conducted another X-ray at Al-Amin Diagnostic Centre. Nothing was found there."
Asked why the vehicle had travelled towards the Outer Ring Road, he described the journey as part of a routine patrol.
He did not provide a specific explanation for why Sohel had been held for approximately two and a half hours before being released.
Nor did his account explain the discrepancy between the two examinations. Sohel, meanwhile, acknowledged that he had been carrying drugs.
He said he purchased the 1,600 yaba tablets in Chattogram's Chaktai-Khatunganj wholesale district for 304,000 taka.
His business partner contributed 100,000 taka. Sohel financed the rest partly through loans and by pawning his wife's gold jewellery.
He expected to earn 30 taka on each tablet, or 48,000 taka from the consignment. He said he had entered the drug trade for the first time, hoping to make money quickly.
Sohel also acknowledged that he faces 16 criminal cases, including one under the Narcotics Control Act.
Originally from Sarisha village in Pirojpur's Swarupkathi, he now lives in Chattogram's Halishahar area. His father, Nurul Islam, previously worked at Chattogram Port.
The man who allegedly supplied the tablets in Boxirhat could not be reached. His mobile phone was switched off.
A check of the number found that the SIM card was registered to Diluara Begum, a resident of Juindandi in Anwara.
When contacted about the allegations, Akbar Shah Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Nazer Hossain did not provide a substantive response.
"If you have CCTV footage and photographs, send them to me on WhatsApp," he said. Waadaa did. But he never replied back.
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