In a rare move, Ramna police Thursday arrested a top CID police official from the home ministry allegedly for attempting to bribe State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar.
MA Baten, a special superintendent of police of the Criminal Investigation Department, was arrested from inside the office of the state minister after Baten allegedly tried to offer Tk 300,000 as bribe for cancelling his transfer order, home ministry sources said.
SSP Baten was the supervising officer of the murder case of Awami League lawmaker Ahsanullah Master, who was shot dead at a political rally in his home town of Tongi on May 7.
According to the police, an order was issued on Tuesday transferring Baten to Khagrachhari as SP. But he wanted the minister to cancel the order while meeting him at his secretariat office at around 3:30pm.
After his arrest, Baten dismissed the allegation and told New Age, “It’s a conspiracy.”
According to the police, Baten “offered Tk 3 lakh to the state minister and promised to give the same per month if he is not transferred from Dhaka.”
Immediately, Babar called his private secretary as well as the home secretary and the inspector general of police to his office. Later he handed Baten over to the police along with a packet, containing six bundles of Tk 500 notes.
Baten was taken to Ramna police station at around 7:00pm and was confined in the lockup.
Sources in the home ministry said SSP Baten exchanged “hot words” with Babar against his transfer to Khagrachari arguing that he was due to go on leave preparatory to retirement in about 18 months time.
Baten served as additional deputy commissioner of police (south) in the DMP prior to his promotion as SP two years ago. He was later posted in the CID as an SSP.
After the CID was charged with investigating the Ahsanullah Master murder case, Baten was made the supervising officer.
It is learnt that during investigation, the CID team under his supervision implicated several local BNP leaders, including its youth front leader Nurul Islam Sarker, in the murder case.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the CID team raided Tongi homes of Sarker and several other ruling party leaders. They included younger brother of BNP leader Hasanuddin Sarker and two others — Mohammad Ali and Pappu.
-Newage
[Edited on 3-6-2004 by reverse_swing]