Man dies in custody
A man was found dead inside a police station in Chittagong yesterday, hours after he was picked up and taken to Kotwali Police Station for “stealing money”.
Police claimed Ishak Mia, 50, committed suicide by hanging himself in police custody, while his family members alleged he was tortured to death.
Kotwali Police Station Officer-in-Charge Jasimuddin told The Daily Star that Ishak hanged himself with his shirt in the police station's bathroom yesterday morning.
The victim had been working as a security guard of Day Night Security. The security company employed him at Zahed Enterprise, an agent of food and beverage companies, at Nandan Kanan in the port city.
The OC, however, claimed the company's staff handed Ishak over to the police on Friday night.
Zakir Khan, manager of the company, who filed a case over an incident of theft at his office, claimed that Ishak stole Tk 10,000 breaking the office's cashbox early Thursday.
Zakir said he then contacted Abdul Jalil, supervisor of the security company, and asked him to call Ishak.
Victim's son Mosharraf Hossain Mia, however, claimed his father was tortured to death in police custody.
After returning home from duty around 11:00am Thursday, Mosharraf said, his father got a call from Jalil who asked him to go to the office.
Since then, the family members could not contact him. Every time they called Ishak over the phone, someone kept replying that he was at work, Mosharraf alleged.
On Friday morning, they called the supervisor, who told them to contact Kotwali Police Station, he said.
“We rushed to the police station at 10:30am [Friday] and saw my father inside a cell. But police did not allow us to talk to him. When we contacted the duty officer, she said they did not arrest anyone named Ishak Mia. When we told her that we saw him inside a cell, she asked us to talk to SI Masud,” said Mosharraf who along with Shawkat Ali, son-in-law of the victim, went to the police station.
SI Masud also said they did not arrest anyone named Ishak, he added.
When the duo went to the police station the next morning to give Ishak some food, they were informed that Ishak committed suicide by hanging himself.
“As we tried to inform our relatives about the death over the mobile phone, police seized our phones and detained us until 2:00pm. In the meantime, they prepared a case against him [Ishak],” Shawkat claimed.
Mosharraf said they would file a case against the company.
OC Jasimuddin, however, denied all the allegations.
The body was sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
Executive Magistrate Rajib-ul-Ahashan, who prepared the inquest (Surathal) report of the body, said the body bore injury marks in the throat, forehead and chest.
“The exact cause of the death could be known after an autopsy,” said the magistrate.
Mizanur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner (South Zone) of CMP, said two probe committees were formed to investigate the matter.
Comments