The cinematic story of a girl’s abduction, forced marriage, harassment, and arrest by a powerful police officer has proven once again the principle that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The beyond cinematic story has become viral in news and social media at the time when the police are observing Police Week 2018 where their performance in defending the government are being highly praised and awarded. In the years, when citizens’ rights were violently fended off and the opposition voice forcefully muted by the police though the Constitution awarded the rights as inviolable, blatant support by the government have emboldened police to make it an indomitable and uncontrolled force. Mizanur Rahman of Dhaka Metropolitan Police was unfortunate enough in being unable to conceal his activities, but there are perhaps hundreds of Mizanur(s) who successfully conceal their crimes.
As per new media, DMP Additional Commissioner Mizanur allegedly picked up 25-year-old Moriam Akter Eko from in front of her Panthapath house on July 15 last year and then forcibly married her. When Moriam disclosed their marriage in social media, the powerful police officer implicated her in a false case and she was jailed for three weeks. She got out of prison on bail a week ago. In a video clip available on the social media, Moriam said she got acquainted with the police official through one of her friends. At one stage, he started making indecent proposals to her. On July 15 last year, Mizan told her that he wanted to apologise for his “misdeeds”. On that day, Mizan took her to the 300 Feet Road in the capital where he tortured her. She was later taken to Mizan’s Bailey Road house where a doctor injected her with a substance that made her unconscious. When Moriam tried to commit suicide the following day, Mizan called her mother and proposed to marry her brandishing his firearm. Moriam alleged that Mizan later forcibly married her with a dower of Tk 50 lakh.
Meanwhile, a cable network on Monday broadcast a news report in which the female news presenter of another private TV channel alleged that Mizan had forced her into a car at gunpoint on December 12. When the car slowed down due to heavy traffic on the Kuril Road, locals came to her rescue hearing her scream from the vehicle. Locals then stopped the car and held Mizanur. How audacious and unheeding to law and order a police officer can be was aired by a private TV channel where Mizanur threatened to kill the news presenter and a journalist who had “reported against him”. He said he would not spare those who were behind his downfall, and that he would take his own life after killing them.
DIG Mizan has been withdrawn from the DMP and attached to the Police Head Quarter pending formal investigation into the case.
But that is no guarantee that he will be punished. Discipline in police is breaking down from top to bottom. We are anxious to see the image of police as disciplined law enforcers is preserved. Nothing could be worse for the reputation of police than insecurity from police.
