Charges raised against eight DED officers that beat up suspect during arrest

The Prosecutor General’s (PG) Office has confirmed that eight officers of the police’s Drug Enforcement Department (DED) are being tried for beating up a Bangladeshi national during an operation last July.

On 5th July 2019, DED officers had raided Ujaalaage in the Maafannu ward under a court order where they confiscated over 400 grams of drugs. Two people were arrested in the raid, including the Bangladeshi national.

A video of the arrest was circulated online, and shows the officers beating up the civilian during arrest. Throughout the video, the suspect does not exhibit any signs of resisting arrest.

After learning of the video, the officers are to have stormed into a house in front of Ujaalaage, where main ruling party’s secretary general resides, to determine who recorded the video, and attempted to threaten the residents into deleting the video.

Speaking to RaajjeMV regarding the case, PG Office’s media official Ahmed Shafeeu stated that the case forwarded for prosecution on 31st October 2019.

Noting that the case forwarded to the office mentioned the involvement of 11 officers, Shafeeu said that there was enough evidence to raise charges against eight of them.

Shafeeu also revealed that charges were raised against the eight officers and forwarded to the Criminal Court on 24th November 2019, adding that the first hearing in the case was held on January 22. While the officers are to have requested time to appoint lawyers at this hearing, a second one was scheduled for March but cancelled later.

Seven out of the eight officers are charged with the intent to harm, under Article 120 of the Penal Code, while one officer, Ahmed Naushad, has been charged with two counts of assault causing bodily harm. In addition, Abdul Muhaimin is also charged with causing damage to property, under Article 220 of the Penal Code.