When the casino culture was spreading, Asaduzzaman Mia was the commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and now that the cat is out of the bag, many are blaming the police of inaction.

Asked if he was unsuccessful as police commissioner in preventing gambling, Asaduzzamn Mia said “These clubs were running Housie or Bingo for ages. Eventually these were replaced by another game called One-ten which led to large scale casino operation.”

Now media was giving credit to the RAB; but RAB personnel were active earlier too, but journalists then did not write about it, Mia said.

“This is collective failure; a failure of the whole society.”

After the interrogation of the people detained, names of leaders, media personalities, and the police came up. Once steps were taken against the top brass, casinos would not see a recrudescence, added Asaduzzaman.

“When I was commissioner, we learnt that Samrat and cohorts had hired a flat to start gambling; we went and sealed the flat, plus a club in Glushan and Kalabagan Club.”

“I knew that Bingo was being played at clubs but had no idea that these premises had evolved into full scale gambling spots,” said the former commissioner.

With large scale gambling now out in the open, criticism is being directed at the police and questions asked as to why the law was silent for so long.

It’s being said that the police, in collusion with a vile section of politicians, were linked to this and took monthly payments.

Asaduzzaman says: “Sports clubs had always run Housie but these morphed into serious gambling and political leaders started to get involved in this; the anarchy hasn’t happened overnight. Gambling spread insidiously. To uproot these, an honest desire is needed and since the PM has given the order, the casinos are now being closed down.”

Rejecting the charge that the inability to prevent the casino culture was a total failure of the police, he shot back: “What did the other law enforcers do? The total system failed.”

Blaming the police was no solution; the unscrupulous elements needed to be rooted out be it in police, politics or civil society, said Mia.

“I personally believe that if the police are given full freedom to work, there will be results; among 250,000 police members, there will be 2,000 to 4,000 rotten apples; once the whole vicious cycle is uprooted with people from all spheres, we will get the true picture.”

Once exemplary punishment is announced against the ones associated with gambling, the depraved culture would end otherwise, one Samrat would be replaced by another, cautioned Asaduzzaman Mia.

The biggest point is to clean up society and eradicate afflictions, the police must be backed by political will; look at other sectors, in transport, no one can run vehicles without paying money, look at the share scandal. We do not know where the money from the share scam went and then there is the endemic extortion on the roads, footpaths across the country.”

'Now that the PM has given the 'clean up' order, people are taking credit and blaming the police. But where were they when the gambling was on in full scale. I accept that police have become tainted but why did the others remain silent?', he asked.