One of the four arrested policemen being taken to the court on Tuesday. Picture by Ramen Mondal

Balurghat, Sept. 9: Four policemen, including two officers, from the Bengal enforcement branch headquarters in Calcutta were arrested in South Dinajpur today after their demand for a bribe from a cooperative marketing credit society was recorded on a mobile phone last evening.

“The four are inspector Madan Mohan Das, assistant sub-inspector Prashanta Das and constables Riazul Karim and Bibekananda Das,” said South Dinajpur district superintendent of police Swapan Banerjee Purnapatra.

The arrested men were produced before chief judicial magistrate Debashis Chowdhury who rejected their bail pleas and remanded them in 14 days of judicial custody, the district police chief added.

“They will be produced in court again on September 23,” Purnapatra said.

The arrests were made from a lodge in Balurghat town around 2am today on the basis of a complaint lodged by the chairman of the Barahar Marketing Cooperative Credit Society in Kumarganj, who had recorded their demand.

The chairman, Mofazzul Hossain, is the Kumarganj zonal committee secretary of the CPM.

Hossain alleged that yesterday afternoon, a man had called up the society’s office at Barahar and contacted the manager, Amulya Sarkar.

“He identified himself as Prashanta Das, an assistant sub-inspector from Bhabani Bhavan, Calcutta. He told the manager that he was accompanied by an inspector and had come to collect their share of bribe from societies like ours. He said Rs 2 lakh should be sent to a lodge in Balurghat,” the chairman said.

However, Sarkar replied that he was not empowered to handle so much money.

“The policemen then told Amulya that they had already collected such amounts from societies in Tapan and Gangarampur (both in South Dijnajpur). It was then that the manager informed me,” Hossain said.

The chairman told the manager to give the policeman his mobile phone number as he had the authority to handle large amounts of cash.

“Prashanta called me and demanded the money, but he did not know that I had recorded the entire conversation on my mobile handset,” Hossain said.

Around 11 last night, Hossain went to the police superintendent’s bungalow and told him about the demand made by the policemen from Calcutta. He also played back the recorded conversation.

The district police chief said all four had been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act.