A suspected criminal and an associate of Dacoit Shahid was allegedly beaten to death under police custody at Sutrapur in the city at an early hourofyesterday.

The deceased was identified as Mohammad Rasel, 22.

Family members alleged that Rasel was beaten to death under die custody of Sutrapur police and then taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where on-duty doctors declared him dead at 2:20pm yesterday.

Police, on the other hand, claimed that they rescued Rasel from a mob's clutch while he was being thrashed at around 9pm on Wednesday. He, along with his other cohorts, was trying to flee after hurling a cocktail on a house at Rankin Street, they said.

As his condition was deteriorating he was taken to the DMCH where on-duty doctors declared him dead, they went on to say.

Officer-in-Charge of Sutrapur Police Station in a press release said five associates of one of the top criminals Shahid who has been on the run charged cocktails on Babuli Villa at Rankin Street.

After having extracted information from Rasel police also arrested four other criminals who were with Rasel during the cocktail attack. The four are Faruk, Rakibul Hasan Roki, Habibur Rahman Rubel and Ashik, said the press release.

Police said the five demanded toll from a Real Estate Businessman by calling the office peon over telephone and asked the businessman to make a phone call to an Indian phone number to contact Dacoit Shahid and giveTk 1 crore astoll.

The four arrestees told the police that they had been extorting money from different businessmen over phone.

Four cases were filed against them in this connection yesterday. The arrestees confessed to the police that they were involved in two mur-

ders and many others criminal offences.

Family members of Rasel, however, told the Daily Star that police arrested Rasel from the Rajdhani Super Market at Tikatuli on Wednesday evening and police took him with them and arrested four others from the Shamibagh area at the same night.

They claimed that there hail been no case against Rasel and he was working in a workshop at Murgitola in the old part of (he city. They also claimed that no incident of mob beating took place in the area.