Bribe taken and then returned: Is it not a criminal offence?
Dr. Syed Nesar Ahmad Rumy :
A couple of weeks back an incident happened in the residence of a state minister in charge of primary and mass education and its adjacent DB office. The news published in the national newspapers became public.
Apparently the issue mentioned in the newspapers had been mitigated but the implications and ethical issues of that incident exposed the poor ethical standard of some of our peoples’ representatives who are enjoying the high office of the republic.
The incident is that there was a syndicate encircling primary and mass education state minister.
As reported in the newspapers that some subordinate staff and a relative of that concerned state minister had collected money from the job-seekers giving assurance of job of primary school teachers
. In this way they collected money from many of the job-seekers but finally they did not get the job. So, they tried utmost to get back the given money.
For that reason, they had gone to state minister’s residence. But they had faced an unpleasant situation and hot talks with the security personnel of the state minister’s residence.
As reported in the newspapers, then they crossed the wall of the residence of state minister and jumped into the premises of DB office. After that they were caught by the DB personnel.
One of the sufferers named Abu Sufian told to a reporter of a much published national daily that a driver of the state minister and nephew of the state minister had taken money from him that he had collected money from the job-seekers and given it to the driver and nephew of the state minister.
The amount of the money was nine lakhs. It is clear from that report that one Abu Sufian acted as a middleman in that deal.
The state minister told the press that he did not know that some persons of his constituency collected money from some people referring his name.
Later he came to know this and had instructed one to give back the said money to the sufferers. He also added the money had already been refunded to the sufferers.
It is very much curious that how the persons of law-enforcing agency were involved in this negotiation.
It is assumed the residence of that state-minister located adjacent to DB office and persons suffers were somehow beaten by the security personnel of the minister’s residence and then the sufferers took shelter in the DB office. Accordingly, they were caught by DB personnel.
This was the descriptions of the fact. Maybe, this incident is not so big and it did not catch the attention of many people as the media keeps busy with the news of forthcoming general election.
But the implication of this incident exposed the weakness of the rule of laws in our country and it is also the sign of double standard of enforcing laws in our country.
Those who have influence and somehow connected with the influential persons seem to be above the laws. The general practice of law enforcers in this case should have been more logical.
But here logic did not work. Law enforcers did not catch money takers who took money from the victims, the job-seekers rather they mediated the deal to get back the money.
Money takers should have been placed under rule of law. But ultimately it did not happen. Only good thing happened here that is the victim jobseekers got back their money.
The whole scenario reflects the poor ethical standard of high profile persons and some members of our law enforcers in our society.
The person who had taken money from the job-seekers definitely had done a criminal offence. And it was a matter of taking cognizance as criminal offence. But the state minister and law-enforcers averted the right path of rule of law rather they had shown leniency to the criminals.
Maybe, criminals might not get same type of leniency if somehow they are not connected with the influential and high profile persons in our country.
So, maybe, this is the picture prevailing in many sectors in our country. It is assumed that in our society many incidents like this is happening nowadays and they are not coming to the media.
This incident reveals that this kind of viciousness has become a common thing in the society that we are living in. A high profile person like a state minister and high officials of law-enforcing agencies did not consider it was a crime.
If they would truly consider it was a crime, then they could have handed them over to the appropriate authority for justice. Definitely the concerned state minister and the members of law enforcing agency had shown leniency for their misdeeds.
It may be termed as one kind of double standard. Maybe, similar offence done by persons not having connections with influential persons or high officials of law enforcing agency may not get same type of treatments. So in a democratic society, enforcing laws selectively will not bring any good to society rather it is a sign of double standard.
Quite often we see in the media that members of the law-enforcing agencies extort money from the persons they caught. Recently a news item published in the national dailies on 26.12.23 that some members of CID abducted a businessman, owner of a travel agency at Kuril Bishaw Road area.
But the DB police later arrested those members. It is a good sign. But where would victims and people go has become a big concern to all of us.
Such crimes committed by the members of law-enforcing agencies are a big concern now but hopefully still now a number of good and courageous persons are working in different sectors.
We also get some news in the media that law-enforcers make some cases harder and softer as they want and incident not happened shown as occurrence and later deliberately implicate different persons.
It is a common perception about many of the law-enforcers in Bangladesh. Even they can make some cases softer after extorting money from the accused.
All these incidents mentioned above have become a common matter in our society in Bangladesh nowadays. Influential persons’ support to the crime doers not facing the laws and court is not now unfamiliar in present day Bangladesh society. So to overcome this situation there must be some initiatives coming from the relevant people in the society.
Situation described above is a kind of social disease. Only administrative actions will not able to trim this abnormality. The intellectuals and high-ups of our society should raise their voices against these wrongdoings. Otherwise social texture, peace will deteriorate soon and our society might fall into the endless darkness.
(The writer is a contributor
to The New Nation. )
