Looting bitcoins from freelancer in custody, 6 cops suspended

Six members of Detective Branch (DB) (North-South) of Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) have been suspended for allegedly looting crores of bitcoins from a person's mobile phone after arresting him.

CMP Commissioner Krishna Pada Roy signed their suspension order based on the findings of a probe committee that was formed to investigate the incident earlier.

Spina Rani Pramanik, CMP's Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC-PR), confirmed the matter to the media.

The six cops are SI Md Alamgir Hossain, ASI Babul Mia, ASI Shah Paran Jannat, ASI Moinul Hossen, and constables Jahidur Rahman and Abdur Rahman.

Victim Abu Bakkar Siddique is a freelancer with a licence from the ICT ministry. A team of CMP's DB North-South Zone led by Ruhul Amin detained Abu Bakkar and his friend in Baizid Bostami area on February 26 night and seized their mobile phones. Later they were produced in court.

After being released from the court, Abu Bakkar complained that he was kept in the Munsorabad DB office after his arrest. There, using the 'Binance App' of his mobile phone, $2,72,000 (Tk 3 crore approximately), and a total of Tk5 lakhs were transferred from the bank account.

On March 1, the media published the news. After that, the city police formed a committee of three members. After the report of that committee, six people were ordered to be dismissed.