Two accused of the June 4 arson attack on a BRTC double-decker, who in their confessional statements had implicated four leaders of Awami League and its front organisations in the crime, retracted the statements yesterday, saying police had forced them to confess.
One of the two, Shafiqul Islam Kalu, a CNG-run three-wheeler driver, was in the custody of Ramna police on the day of bus arson at Sheraton Hotel crossing in the capital that left 10 people killed and at least 20 others injured.
Sub-Inspector (SI) Shamsul Haq who had arrested Kalu on June 2 told The Daily Star yesterday over telephone that the man was at the police station when the attack was made.
Appearing before the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM), Dhaka yesterday, vagabond Masum and Kalu submitted separate petitions to withdraw their confessional statements, alleging they furnished the statements as police threatened to kill them if they do not obey.
"Police arrested me in Gulistan on July 27, took me to the DB office where three policemen beat me up after the zero hours," Kalu said in his retractionpetition.
"They informed me that I along with my gang had set fire to the BRTC bus near Sheraton Hotel under the direction of Awami League leaders, and asked me to confess the same before the magistrate," he narrated.
"When I said that I was in remand and in jail custody from June 3 to 8, they began inhuman torture on men and threatened to kill me unless I follow their directives."
Kalu claimed he acted on police' instructions to save his life: "What I told in the court was not my statement. I've said what police asked me to say."
Masum, in his petition, told the court, "Arresting me in the bus arson case on July 10, police ordered me to state some names before the magistrate, otherwise, they threatened to cripple me and implicate my family members in criminal cases."
He gave in to police torture and followed their instructions to save himself and his family, Masum said.
Metropolitan Magistrate Jahangir Alam took the petitions on record.
Police, meanwhile, filed a petition yesterday for a five-day remand of Kalu for further interrogation, which Kalu's lawyers opposed and the court rejected.
The court also turned down pleas to give bail to the two.
Police arrested Kalu on Topkhana Road on June 2 night in a mugging case filed the previous day by Anwar Hossain, a worker of Raihan Auto Accessories at Bijoynagar, and produced him before the CMM Court with a five-day remand petition.
"The court granted a one-day remand. We interrogated him on June 4 at Ramna Police Station and produced him before the court on the following day," said SI Shamsul Haq, investigation officer of the case.
Kalu was freed on bail on June 8, but
police arrested him again at Golap Shah Mazar in Gulistan on July 27.
Police arrested Masum on July 10 morning in Gulistan area and produced him before Metropolitan Magistrate Shafiq Anwar the same day where he confessed to the arson. He told the magistrate that Jubo League President Jahangir Kabir Nanak and General Secretary Mirza Azam, AL leader Sayeed Khokon and pro-AL transport workers' leader Ruhul Amin alias Boro Mia gave them money and a bag of powder to set fire to a bus.
He, Kalu and four others sprayed the powder by syringe and set fire to it, he said.
Police produced Kalu before the same magistrate on July 28 where he said four of them sprayed the powder by pichkari (sprayer).
The loophole-ridden statements of both Kalu and Masum go in line with the ones the police officers made immediately after the incident linking the AL to the arson.
DB chief Faruq Ahmed strongly denied Kalu and Masum's allegation of police torture to extract confessional statements.
He said, "Police are no party in recording confessional statements. The two made it on their own before the magistrate."
When asked how Kalu, who was in police custody from June 2 to 5, could set fire to the bus on June 4, Ahmed admitted that he might have given a false statement.
"The real culprits behind the incident might have bribed him to make such a statement to' damage merit of the case'," the DB chief maintained, adding, "He might have used a false name and address."