A police investigation on Saturday found five juvenile correctional officers, tasked with rehabilitating young offenders, responsible for torturing three teenage boys to death in Jessore.
The sadistic nature of their torture at the Jessore juvenile correctional centre included repeatedly beating the boys unconscious, with no medical attention to speak of. Seven other inmates loyal to the officers helped carry out the brutality that resulted in the three deaths.
Jessore Superintendent of Police Md Ashraf Hossain disclosed the details of the police investigation at a press briefing in his office Saturday afternoon.
He said the police has concluded in preliminary investigation that five officers, including the superintendent of the correctional centre, were directly involved in the triple murder.
“The officers were arrested this morning and produced in court, where the police sought a seven-day remand for their interrogation,” he added.
The five correctional officials are: Abdullah Al Masud, the superintendent of the correction centre; Masum Billah, assistant superintendent; Mushfiq Ahmed, probation officer; Shahnur Rahman, physical instructor; and Faruk Hossain, technical instructor.
Defendants’ lawyer Salahuddin Sharif Shakil said the remand appeal hearing is on August 17.
Md Ashraf Hossain said on the afternoon of August 13, seven officers of the centre carried out the torture and three seriously injured boys died without any medical treatment.
Describing the background of the incident, the SP said that on August 3, Nur Islam, the head guard of the centre, asked an inmate, Hridoy to cut his hair. Hridoy told him he would cut his hair later as his hands were sore from cutting the hair of about two hundred other inmates of the centre before Eid.
SP Ashraf said: “Nur Islam exaggerated the matter in reporting it to the correctional centre’s Assistant Superintendent Masum Billah. Superintendent Abdullah Al Masud and other officials were also present at that time. Nur Islam told the officers that Hridoy did not cut his hair as he and another juvenile inmate, Pavel, were intoxicated. Head guard Nur Islam accused the two boys of verbally abusing him. Another juvenile inmate, Nayeem, was present there and he disclosed the matter to Pavel. After that, Pavel and his associates assaulted Nur Islam and broke one of his arms.”
The police official said the higher authorities of the correctional centre met at a meeting on August 13 in preparation for the next day, National Mourning Day. At the meeting, the officials decided to punish those involved in the August 3 incident. Between witnesses and surveillance footage, the officials had already identified 18 boys involved in the beating of Nur Alam.
The Jessore SP said the centre’s officials tasked seven inmates who were loyal to them, to beat the 18 boys. They called the boys to the dormitory and tied them up and beat them mercilessly with iron rods.
Md Ashraf Hossain said the police found out in talking to the inmates, that the officers had instructed the seven inmates to beat the boys until they became unconscious. When the boys regained consciousness the seven inmates would beat them again and left them at the dormitory without any food or medical attention the whole day.
The SP said the correctional centre authorities called a compounder when the condition of the boys deteriorated. Later, a boy by the name of Nayeem was sent to the hospital as he was in a critical condition. Upon reaching the hospital, the duty doctor said Nayeem had already died. Later, the police were informed about the incident.
The police official said the police recovered the bodies of two other boys from the correctional centre and sent 15 others to the hospital. The correctional centre authorities did not inform the police, district administration, or their superiors, about the incident.”
"Upon preliminary interrogation, we initially took 10 people into custody on suspicion of being involved in the incident," the SP said. Later, 9 more people were interrogated. Now we have five people who were directly involved in the incident and five others as witnesses.
Inspector Rakibuzzaman has been appointed the investigation officer of the case. We will present the police investigation report very soon after further investigation, the Jessore SP said.
