Torture In Custody: Probe begins against OC, 5 others

Police started its investigation into the case filed against six people, including officer-in-charge Kamrul Islam Miah of Haluaghat Police Station, in connection with torturing a woman inside the police station.

The woman, Jharna Begum, 40, alleged in the case that a police team detained her at Durail Bazar of Haluaghat on August 11 when she went there to shop.

Talking to The Daily Star, she said UP Chairman Wares Uddin Sumon and his men waylaid her and then called in the police. The police took her to the police station and OC Kamrul demanded Tk 5 lakh from her, she claimed.

“I could not pay the money … the severe torture went on and there were no clothes on my body during the torture,” Jharna said.

She was produced before a Mymensingh court on August 13 that sent her to jail.

“The following day I was admitted to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital for treatment and I was there for eight days,” said the woman. 

“I was released on bail two-and-a-half-months ago,” Jharna said, adding, “When I was in jail, the men of chairman ransacked my house and looted valuables.”

Four cases of cow lifting were also lodged against her after she was arrested.

She had a conflict with the chairman over UP elections in 2015. She did not work for him then and the chairman had been harassing her since, she alleged.

She eventually filed the case against the six with a Mymensingh court on December 21.

The other accused in the case are: Durail Union Parishad Chairman Wares Uddin Sumon, Hatem Ali, Nazrul Islam, Johirul Islam, and Rafiqul Islam.

Syed Nurul Islam, superintendent of Mymensingh police, assigned SA Newazi, additional police superintendent of Mymensingh, to probe the case and submit a report in 10 days.

The OC and the UP chairman said the allegations raised by the woman was baseless.