Police file GD after Rumin Farhana's argument with Sarail OC at police station

Police have filed a general diary (GD) over an argument between independent lawmaker Barrister Rumin Farhana and Monjur Kader Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of Sarail police station in Brahmanbaria, inside the station building. News of the GD became known on Friday night (October 23).

Brahmanbaria's Additional Superintendent of Police (Administration and Finance) Mohammad Arafatul Islam confirmed the matter. He said a GD had been filed mentioning that day's incident, adding that it was not a complaint and that police record a GD whenever a notable incident takes place.

OC Monjur Kader Bhuiyan declined to give any information about the GD. However, sources said police were collecting information about who had accompanied Rumin Farhana to the station at the time of the incident.

The incident began on Thursday night (October 22), when Rumin Farhana became involved in an argument with the OC at the Sarail station building over alleged irregularities and corruption, and over police security not being provided during her visit to Durga Puja pavilions.

It was learned that although the OC had been asked to provide security for the lawmaker during her Puja pavilion visits, he did not make the arrangements. Rumin Farhana went to the station around 8pm on Thursday to ask why security was not provided and about the irregularity allegations against the OC, and she stayed in his room until 9pm.

At that time, a man who had come with her alleged that the OC had taken Tk 30,000 in bribes from him. The OC denied the allegation and said Rumin Farhana had coached the man and brought him to the station.

At one stage of the argument, Rumin Farhana told the OC that he had been a big Awami League supporter, that she knew his history, and that she had no headache over that. It was this remark that later brought the incident into wide discussion.

Denying her allegations, OC Monjur Kader Bhuiyan told reporters that day that the lawmaker had come to the station with hundreds of people and created unrest, and that she had coached some people to say offensive things.

The OC also said Rumin Farhana had alleged he took money from brick kilns, but claimed all the brick kilns in the haor were under water. He said security arrangements had been in place across the station area during Puja, though keeping a police team personally with the lawmaker at that time had been difficult.

With counter-statements from both sides, the incident has now moved beyond Sarail into national discussion. Such an argument between a lawmaker and a station chief inside the station itself, followed by a police GD, has raised many questions.

According to police, a GD is neither a case nor a complaint, but a process for preserving a record of an incident. The additional superintendent's statement reflected the same explanation.

Attention now turns to where the matter goes after this GD, and whether higher authorities take any step over the irregularity allegations Rumin Farhana raised against the OC.