The Police Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday submitted a charge sheet against five police members, including suspended Sylhet Bandar Bazar police outpost chief sub-inspector Akbar Hossain Bhuiyan, and a youth claimed to be a reporter for the custodial death of Raihan Ahmed.
PBI Sylhet office superintendent Khaled-Uz Zaman confirmed that they handed over the 22-page charge sheet to the prosecution section of police at around 11:00am to submit it to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court during its virtual session.
Sylhet court inspector Pradip Kumar Das told New Age that they submitted the charge sheet to the CMMC in the afternoon.
Raihan, 34, a compounder of a doctor chamber at Stadium Market in the city, was tortured to death at the Bandar Bazar outpost in the early hours of October 11 reportedly after they failed to realise Tk 10,000 from his family in bribe.
Six accused named in the charge sheet in the case of custodial death are the prime suspect and Bandar Bazar police outpost in-charge Akbar Hossain Bhuiyan, sub-inspector Hasan Ali, assistant SI Ashek-e-Elahi, constable Harunur Rashid and Titu Chandra Das and a reporter named Abdullah Al Noman, the court sources said.
PBI’s Sylhet office superintendent Khaled in a news briefing held at the noon in the office told the press that they found the involvement of the Bandar Bazar police in torturing Raihan.
He, however, said that any evidence of any previous enmity, as was claimed by the victim’s relatives, between Raihan and the police personnel was not found in the investigation.
The PBI officer said that so-called reporter Noman had assisted the cop official to change the hard disc of the close-circuit television camera unit at Bandar Bazar police outpost and the prime suspect to flee the outpost.
He said that Raihan attacked one named Saidul Sheikh and his companion Roni at Sweeper Colony in the city’s Kastaghar area at around 1:45am on October 11 as Saidul claimed that there were four fake yaba tablets among the ones he bought from them.
Raihan also snatched away Tk 9,700 of Saidul at that moment after beating him up and later Saidul verbally made a complaint to the Bandar Bazar police in this regard, the PBI officer said in the briefing.
The police then took Raihan to the Bandar Bazar outpost after detaining him at the sweeper colony and the prime suspect Akbar tortured him with a cane, he said.
He also added that Raihan was taken to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital at around 7:50am when the hospital’s on-duty doctors declared him dead.
As part of their effort to hide the crime, the accused had claimed that Raihan died during a mass beating while he was snatching away money from a pedestrian at Kastoghar area and had also destroyed all evidence of torture in custody, the PBI officer said.
He added that there are two sections of life term jail and capital punishment in the charge sheet, if the allegations are proved in the court then the accused have to face severe punishment.
Raihan’s wife Tahmina Akter Tanni filed a case with the Kotwali police on October 12 in this regard.
Raihan’s mother Salma Begum said in the afternoon that she wants exemplary punishment for the killers of her son.
She, however, said that PBI gave a hint in the charge sheet that Raihan was a drug addict or was involved in drug peddling which, his mother said, was not acceptable.
‘Because we never saw any such behaviour which would indicate that he was an addict. So we have to look at the matter with caution,’ said Salma Begum
She said they would discuss the matter with their lawyer. ‘Further steps will be taken in this regard if necessary,’ she said.
All of the five cops of Bandar Bazar police outpost were arrested after they had been suspended from their job following the custodial death of Raihan.
They were also placed on remand in police custody for differing periods for interrogation but none of them confessed to their crimes to the court after completion of the interrogations, the court sources said.
