Dhaka’s top police officer yesterday confirmed what we have long suspected. But Commissioner Sazzat Ali’s frank acknowledgment – ​​and rare admission of police complicity – leaves little doubt about systemic abuse.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner openly stated that the complainants had filed murder cases against hundreds of people, only to be able to extort them and have their names removed from the list of accused.

During a meeting with the crime journalists, Commissioner Sazzat Ali told them that he had already ordered the office in charge of Bhatara police station to file a complaint against one of these complainants. He also told journalists that police officers were also involved in this racket, a rare and laudable admission in itself.

This newspaper reported several aspects of these murder cases in which the plaintiffs had accused hundreds of people. Plaintiffs are reportedly naming hundreds, even though they don’t know any of them, except perhaps the former prime minister and a few members of her cabinet. When asked, the plaintiffs said they had not given any names in the first place. Apparently other people had collected the names and the plaintiff had only signed the papers in the hope of getting justice.

There have been reports — quite similar to those to which the Commissioner alluded — of complaints being filed in Dhaka against a few hundred people, mostly from one upazila (subdistrict) of Bangladesh, in hundreds of kilometers from Dhaka. Only the first few names included the usual suspects like the former prime minister and notable members of his cabinet.

This newspaper also reported cases where defendants claimed to have paid to have their names removed from the complaint. That these murder cases are being used as tools of retaliation could not have been more evident than when the name of renowned lawyer ZI Khan Panna appeared in the list of accused in a murder case. It was quickly withdrawn after heavy criticism and public outcry, especially since the elderly lawyer had vehemently expressed his support for the student protests.

It is particularly distressing that this extortion racket revolves around the martyrs of the popular uprising. The obvious manipulation of the facts of the case, and subsequent calls to drop the names of the defendants in the first place, contribute to weakening these cases in general. Even councilors had expressed exasperation and embarrassment at the massive allegations of people involved in murder cases. But now that the Dhaka Police Commissioner has acknowledged this trend, it would behoove the authorities to take corrective measures and avoid any miscarriage of justice.

We demand rapid action so that the harassment caused by this abuse of the law stops immediately. We pay particular attention to murder charges against journalists.