TDS Desk:

Job aspirants used to draw special signs in the police constable recruitment exam answer sheet. The examiner also gave them more marks after seeing that mark. In this way, 32 candidates were given more marks. Apart from this, the questions paper in the recruitment test was sent to the job seekers in the form of suggestions. In this way, 73 lakh 50 thousand taka was taken from seven job aspirants.

This information is known from the charge sheet submitted to the court in a case filed by the ACC on allegations of corruption in the Trainee Recruit Constable (TRC) post in Madaripur in 2019. In this case, the charge sheet has been given accusing five people including the former Superintendent of Police of Madaripur Subrata Kumar Halder. ACC head office deputy director Md. Hafizul Islam submitted this charge sheet in the Madaripur District and Sessions Judge’s Court on Thursday afternoon.

The other accused persons are former constable Nuruzzaman Sumon, former constable Zahidul Islam, former TSI Golam Rahman, and former medical assistant of police hospital Piyas Bala. Another accused, Haider Farazi, son of deceased Safyuddin Farazi of Ghatmazhi village of Madaripur Sadar Upazila, has been recommended to be acquitted from the case.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Madaripur office sources informed that on May 28, 2019, the headquarters published a notification for recruitment to the post of TRC in the police. Later on June 26 of that year 31 men and 23 women were appointed as constables. Before this, a special team of the police headquarters recovered 73 lakh 50 thousand taka from the accused. Later on investigation, the police headquarters learned that the recovered money was taken from job aspirants.

In the investigation, the ACC verified the written examination answer sheets of 32 job seekers. From these answer sheets, ACC can find out that there are different types of punctuation including quotation signs and hyphens at the bottom of the first page of the answer sheet. The accused syndicate asked the candidates to give these marks to pass the exam. Accused Superintendent of Police Subrata Kumar Halder also gave higher marks to 32 candidates who had these marks in their answer sheets. His bodyguard Nuruzzaman Sumon, former constable Zahidul Islam, former TSI Golam Rahman, and former medical assistant of police hospital Piyas Bala accepted Tk 73 lakh 50 thousand bribe on behalf of this former police superintendent.

In this incident, on the recommendation of the police headquarters, on July 5, 2023, the case was filed at the ACC’s Madaripur district office by Hafizul Islam, the deputy director of the head office. The then Superintendent of Police Subrata Kumar Halder was accused in the case. Later, the ACC filed a charge sheet in the court in the name of five people including the former police superintendent. However, Hafizul Islam, the investigating officer of the case, has recommended an accused named Haider Farazi to be exempted from the case as he was not involved in the incident.