Family awaiting justice

It has been three years since Taposh Chandra Sarkar was murdered, but his family is still waiting for justice.

Taposh, a first-year student of Sanskrit at Chittagong University (CU), was shot dead on December 14, 2014 when he came out of his room at Shah Amanat hall during a factional clash of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) on the campus.

Two days after the incident, Hafizul Islam, a classmate of Taposh in the same department, filed a murder case with Hathazari Police Station accusing 45 men.

The case was transferred to Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) in Chittagong on August 5, 2015. On May 2, 2016, a charge-sheet was filed accusing 29 BCL activists including former cultural secretary Ashrafuzzaman Asha as the prime accused.

Asish, elder brother of Taposh, said “We feel frustrated as the killers are roaming freely. But, we are still hopeful that we will get justice.”

Police had arrested 16 people in this connection, including the prime accused Asha. All of them are now freed on bail while Asha is behind bars.

The case, which is now awaiting trial, will be heard again on January 10 next year, said an official at the General Registrar’s Office in Hathazari.

Bhabatosh Nath, additional public prosecutor in Chittagong and also the in-charge of the case, could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

Meanwhile, the CU authorities had assured to give a job to a family member of the slain student, but nothing has been done so far.

“They assured our family of arranging a job for me in the university administration, but nothing has happened,” Ashish, who works as a salesman at an electronics goods showroom, said that his income was not enough to make ends meet.

Contacted, CU Registrar Prof Kamrul Huda said Taposh's family members had never contacted with the authorities concerned.

 “The administration would have tried their best to help the family, if they had contacted us,” he added.

Ashish, on the other hand, claimed that he tried several times, but had failed to reach the authorities concerned.

Expressing dissatisfaction, former general secretary of CU unit BCL Fazly Rabbi Sujan said the university authorities had assured to arrange a job for Ashish soon after the incident.

Taposh was the second of five sons in his family that lives in Nidhipur village under Jamalganj upazila of Sunamganj.

His farmer father is now incapable of work due to old age complications. His mother is also suffering from various illnesses since her son's death.