A court in Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday sentenced seven policemen, all detectives, to seven years in jail for kidnapping a trader and demanding a ransom of Tk 17 lakh for his release.

Cox’s Bazar District and Sessions Court judge Mohammad Ismail handed down the judgment in the presence of all the suspended cops.

The judge also imposed a fine of Tk 1 lakh on each of the convicts and ordered them to undergo an additional one year in prison for non-payment of the fine.

The court sentenced the convicted cops to five years in jail for kidnapping and another seven years for extortion by putting a person in fear of death. 

As both the sentences will run simultaneously, the convicts will serve a total of seven years in jail, said plaintiff’s lawyer Mohammad Jahangir.

The convicts are sub inspectors Moniruzzaman, 35, and Abul Kalam Azad, 39, additional sub-inspectors Golam Mostafa, 36, Firoz Ahmed, 34, and Alauddin, 32, and constables Mostafa Ajal, 52, and MD Al Amin, 26.

On September 24, 2017, the seven kidnapped Abdul Gafur, a trader hailing from Teknaf and later demanded Tk 17 lakh as ransom from his family by threatening to kill him in a fake encounter, said public prosecutor Faridul Alam.

According to the case complaint, the Bangladesh Army arrested six of the accused with the ransom amount from the Marin Drive in Cox’s Bazar on October 25, 2017.

Later, another absconding detective was arrested by the police.

Abdul, the victim, later filed a complaint with Teknaf police, based on which a case for kidnapping and extortion was lodged.

In August, 2018, Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) submitted a chargesheet in this case against the seven detectives.

On September 5 this year, the court rejected the bail pleas of the seven cops.