Drug peddlers allegedly had police implicate a teenager in a narcotic case to compel his family to withdraw a case filed against them, the family claimed yesterday at a press conference, held at the office of Crime Reporters’ Association in the capital.
Al Amin, an eighth-grader of Pragati High School in the capital’s Pallabi, was supposed to get admitted to the ninth grade, but he is now in Dhaka Central Jail, they added.
According to the family, drug peddlers had 14-year-old Al Amin arrested, showing him to be 21, so that they could get discharged from a murder case filed by the teenager’s father.
“We went to police seeking justice for the killing of our uncle Md Shawkot, who was murdered for protesting drug trading in the area. But now we are becoming the victim of injustice by police,” said Shahidul Islam Hira, eldest brother of Al Amin.
“To force us to have their names dropped from the murder case, Pallabi’s notorious drug peddling squad, Kalu-Liton gang, had police arrest my brother,” he told journalists.
In October 2010, following the murder of Shawkot, his brother Md Kawsar, father of Al Amin, filed a case with Pallabi Police Station accusing eight, including Kalu and his brothers Liton and Jahid, said Shahidul. The gang threatened the family and asked them to drop their names from the case, he added.
“As we took a strong stand, Jahid, a member of the gang, held Al Amin and later handed him over to police on the night of November 28, when he went out to buy medicines for his ailing mother,” said Shahidul, who was implicated in another case.
“It’s a violation of human rights as police produced my brother before a Dhaka court with drug charges, showing him to be 21, when he is actually 14,” Shahidul said.
Sub-inspector of Pallabi Police Station Billal Hossain, who filed the case against the teenager and submitted the charge sheet, declined to speak, but suggested that this correspondent should talk to the officer-in-charge (OC).
OC Dadan Fakir told that the man who arranged the press conference was a drug addict himself and his family was also involved in drug peddling.
He said he could not say whether the boy was a drug peddler or not, before investigation.
About the age of Al Amin, he said he seemed to be 18 or 19 at the time of arrest.
Asked why his age was written 21 in the charge sheet, which was submitted on January 5, the OC said, “If there was any negligence by any officer in providing information, we will take action against him or her.”
