Former Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police (DB) Mohammad Harun Or Rashid became widely discussed after he made a video of himself feeding rice to various people who came to the DB office. Many people used to call his activities at the DB office ‘mischief’ and call it ‘Harun’s Rice Hotel’. He certainly enjoyed being called that. Harun himself had said so in several interviews.

After the fall of the Awami League government in the student-public uprising, Harun of the ‘Rice Hotel’ is absconding. Rezaul Karim Mallick is now the head of the DB. He and other DB officials feel embarrassed to talk about ‘Harun’s Rice Hotel’.

The secret of the name Haruner Bhater Hotel:

Harun Or Rashid took charge as the Additional Commissioner of DB in July 2022. The following year, on July 29, 2023, during the Awami League anti-government movement, BNP leader Gayeshwar Chandra Roy was arrested from Old Dhaka and taken to the DB office. Harun entertained him in a room of the DB office. He himself served food on Gayeshwar’s plate and videotaped it and spread it on social media. There was widespread discussion and criticism about this at the time. Basically, the name ‘Haruner Bhater Hotel’ was introduced after that.

The tarnished image of DB has started to return through professional work. The current DB is not Harun’s DB, but a DB of the trust and confidence of the common people. The current head of DB is Rezaul Karim Mallick.

Harun Or Rashid used to entertain various such people in that room and spread the video on social media. Actresses Apu Biswas and Kaushik Hossain Taposh, stars, TikTokers and bloggers who had filed various complaints were entertained in this way. Thus, the DB office became better known as ‘Harun’s Rice Hotel’.

‘Making fun of the nation’

In late July last year, during the mass uprising, six coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement were brought to the DB office. They were not produced in court within 24 hours as per the law and were kept in DB custody. At that time, Harun also circulated pictures of himself eating with them on Facebook.

During the hearing of the writ, the then Additional Attorney General Mohammad Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury said, ‘I saw on TV that these six (coordinators) were eating with a fork.’ At one stage, the court said, ‘Who told you to do these things? Why did you do these things? Don’t make fun of the nation. Whoever he takes, he puts him at a dining table.’

The ‘rice hotel’ room now:

Last week, this reporter visited the DB office and visited the room used as ‘Harun’s rice hotel’. The room is located on the second floor of the old DB building. When he went to that room, he saw chairs placed around a large table. The current DB chief, Rezaul Karim Mallick, sits in the room next to that room. DB officials say that sometimes small meetings are held in this room. Sometimes, accused are interrogated in this room.

The current DB chief, Rezaul Karim Mallick, said that the tarnished image of the DB has started to return through professional work. The current DB is not Harun’s DB, but a DB of trust and confidence of the common people.