TDS Desk:

Eleven police personnel have been suspended after video footage showed them allowing the disgraced former tax official Motiur Rahman to dine in a roadside restaurant while under escort to jail.

Motiur, a former member of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), is already notorious in Bangladesh for a scandal, dubbed the “goat affair”, which raised questions about his unexplained wealth and lifestyle.

He was being taken from a Dhaka court back to Kishoreganj jail on Aug 12 when the prison van stopped outside the Nirala Haddi Hotel and Restaurant in Narsingdi.

Motiur was filmed leaving the van, spending nearly an hour in a private dining room, and conversing closely with a man in plain clothes, while uniformed police stood by.

The footage, which quickly went viral on social media, prompted widespread criticism and forced the authorities to set up an internal probe.

A three-member inquiry team, led by the additional superintendent of police for crime and operations in Kishoreganj, concluded that officers escorting Motiur had taken bribes and acted in a manner “contrary to departmental discipline”.

On Saturday night, Kishoreganj Superintendent of Police Mohammad Hasan Chowdhury confirmed that 11 police men, including one sub-inspector and 10 constables, had been suspended.

“Whenever allegations are raised against our policemen, action is taken in line with the law. This case is no different,” he said.

Those suspended are Sub-Inspector Abul Kashem, and constables Moniruzzaman, Md Kabir Hossain, Imran, Nirjan Khan, Shamim Alam, Md Roni Hossain, Shariful Islam, Tanvir Rahman, Md Abu Sayed Mia and Rabindra Das.

In its report, the committee accused the 11 policemen of accepting bribes, acting with dishonest intent, misbehaving, and severely damaging the public image of the police force.

In 2024, a man named Mushfiqur Rahman Ifat went viral on social media after he posted on Facebook about purchasing a goat for Eid-ul-Azha at a price of Tk 1.5 million. People wondered at the source of his income. In social media posts, Ifat identified Motiur as his father.

However, in a TV interview, Motiur denied that Ifat was his son and claimed he only had two children — a son and a daughter.

At one point, Nizam Uddin Hazari, then the Feni-2 MP, appeared on a television programme and claimed that Ifat was Motiur’s son from his second marriage.

Motiur was transferred from the NBR amid the goat scandal. On Jan 6, the Anti-Corruption Commission prosecuted Motiur and his family. Motiur was named in all three cases.

Then, on Jan 14, 2025, the Detective Branch of policearrested Motiur and his wife Laila Kaniz Lucky.