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Death in custody

Locals lay siege to Khilgaon Police Station

Staff Correspondent
Angry locals from Meradia hemmed in Khilgaon Police Station yesterday following the death of Shakil Ahmed ChowdhurySumonin police custody.
Defying heavy showers, over 200 residents of Meradia led a procession to the police station. They laid siege to the police station for about 45 minutes and chanted slogans demanding punishment to the officer-in-charge (OC) and others responsible.
• However, no untoward incident took place during the siege, and the Khilgaon police station OCremained in his office during the siege.
Earlier, a few hundred locals crowded die Meradia home of Sumon, 20, when his body was taken
there at about 2:00pm following the post mortem by a three-member board at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) yesterday. He was buried in Meradia graveyard after his namaj-e-jahaja yesterday.
Medical board sources said that marks of torture were found on his legs and hands. No evidence was found that the young man died from wounds suffered in a jump from the roof of a six-storey building, as suggested by the inquest report.
The inquest report prepared on Saturday by Metropolitan Magistrate Abdur Rouf Khan and Khilgaon police said Sumon was caught along with five others during a robbery at house Kha/20, Malibagh Chowdhurypara on Thursdaynight. The inquest report prepared on Saturday by Metropolitan Magistrate Abdur Rouf Khan and Khilgaon police said Sumon was caught along with five others during a robbery at house Kha/20, Malibagh Chowdhurypara on Thursday night.
It also said Sumon jumped to the ground from a six-story building at one stage and a mob beat him and others up. The report mentioned that blood was oozing from Sumon's nose, but did not identify any mark of injury on his body.
Khilgaon police on Saturday night echoed the inquest report when they were interviewed by The Daily Star.
In a press release on Friday, police said they had arrested five robbers and one of them was wounded. The press release did not mention that Sumon had suffered any kind of injury when he was caught.
However, Sumon's parents maintain their son was beaten by police at Khilgaon Police Station before them as they failed to provide Tk 1 lakh police demanded for his release.
"They're beating me mercilessly. Give them whatever amount they want or they will kill me," Shahid Hossain Chowdhury quoted his son as telling him.
Shahid said he went to the police station on Friday with Tk 11,000 and a cheque for Tk 40,000 as he was unable to immediately raise Tk 1 lakh. According to Shahid, the OC refused to take any amount in the form of a cheque and was infuriated.
"When we failed to pay him the full amount, some policemen started beating my son before my eyes on Friday," the victim's father said.
However, OC Entazer Rahman denied the allegation that he had demanded money from Sumon's family. "Nor have I ever met Shahid Hossain Chowdhury or any other member of his family," the OC said.
Shahid said he would file a case against the OC and the second officer of the police station today.
Meanwhile, a resident of the house from where the five alleged
robbers were caught, said yesterday that Sumon was one of the robbers who were caught with three firearms and some lethal weapons on Thursday night during the robbery attempt.
Asked, the OC of Khilgaon Police Station said except for the two cases filed in connection with Thursday's robbery and the possession of firearms, no other case or general diary was filed against Sumon with the police station.
Meanwhile, ADC (east zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Mostafa Kamal said the allegation brought against the Khilgaon OC and others had not been proved.
Expressing grave concern over Sumon's death from what it termed "bestial police torture," the human rights organisation Odhikar will conduct an investigation into the allegation of police torture on Sumon that left him dead.
Noting that death from torture on non-payment of a bribe is a serious human rights violation, Odhikar demanded the policemen involved in the incident be arrested and awarded exemplary punishment if found guilty by a neutral investigation.