Police Administration, Discipline, and Service Rules
Structure and function
Understand the police organisation: the Police Headquarters, ranges, metropolitan police, district police, and investigation centres, and the separation between investigation and law-and-order duties. Know the rank structure from constable to Inspector General, and the role of the Police Reform and the disciplinary authorities.
Discipline and service rules
Learn the sources of discipline: the Police Act, the Police Regulations, and the service rules governing appointment, promotion, transfer, leave, and punishment. Know the categories of penalties - minor and major - and the procedure for a departmental inquiry, including the right to be heard. Understand the appeal and review routes against punishment.
Traps
Questions confuse who can impose which penalty, or mix up the inquiry procedure with a criminal trial. Another trap is treating a transfer as a punishment, which it is not unless so ordered. Watch for swapped appeal authorities.
Rule of thumb
For any disciplinary question, identify three things: the alleged misconduct, the authority competent to punish, and the appeal forum. If any one is wrong, the option is wrong.
Worked example
A question asks whether a police officer can be dismissed without an inquiry. A major penalty requires a properly conducted departmental inquiry with notice and an opportunity to be heard, unless a specific rule permits summary action. Selecting ‘yes, by the superior’s order’ ignores the inquiry requirement.
Criminal Law, Procedure, and Evidence (Basic)
Criminal law
Know the core offences and their elements: theft, robbery, dacoity, murder, culpable homicide, hurt, assault, cheating, criminal breach of trust, and forgery. For each, identify the act, the intention or knowledge, and the consequence. Understand general exceptions such as private defence, mistake of fact, and infancy, and the difference between intention and knowledge.
Procedure
Learn the stages of a criminal case: complaint or first information report, investigation, charge sheet, cognizance, charge framing, trial, and judgment. Know the difference between a cognizable and non-cognizable offence, bailable and non-bailable, and compoundable and non-compoundable. Know when arrest requires a warrant and the rights of an arrested person.
Evidence
Understand the types of evidence - oral, documentary, circumstantial, and expert - and basic rules: burden of proof on the prosecution, presumption of innocence, the value of confession, and the rule against hearsay.
Traps
Questions swap cognizable with non-cognizable, or bailable with non-bailable. Another trap is confusing murder with culpable homicide, or treating a confession to police as substantive evidence.
Rule of thumb
For classification questions, ask two things: can police arrest without a warrant (cognizable), and is bail a right (bailable)?
Worked example
A question asks whether police may investigate a non-cognizable offence without a magistrate’s order. Police cannot investigate such a case without an order from the magistrate; they may only enter it in the general diary. Choosing ‘yes, on the complainant’s request’ confuses the two categories.
Information Technology and Cyber Awareness
Fundamentals
Know hardware and software basics, operating systems, input and output devices, memory (RAM vs ROM), storage, networks, the internet, IP addresses, and cloud computing. Understand common file types and basic office applications. Learn what a database is and the difference between data and information.
Cyber safety and law
Understand cybercrime categories: hacking, identity theft, phishing, malware, ransomware, cyberstalking, and financial fraud. Know safe practices - strong passwords, two-factor authentication, avoiding unknown links, verifying senders, and backing up data. Learn the basic framework of Bangladesh’s cyber laws, the role of the Cyber Police Centre, and how digital evidence is preserved, since chain of custody matters in court.
Traps
Questions confuse viruses with worms (worms self-replicate across networks), phishing with pharming, and authentication with authorisation. Another trap is treating a deleted file as gone forever, or assuming a screenshot alone proves a digital fact.
Rule of thumb
For any cyber incident, follow the order: preserve evidence, report to the proper authority, then remediate. Destroying logs to ‘clean up’ destroys the case.
Worked example
An officer receives a complaint of online financial fraud. The correct first step is to secure the account details, transaction records, and device logs without altering them, then escalate to the cyber unit. Advising the victim to delete the messages would destroy evidence and weaken any future prosecution.