Mystery over Rajshahi police officer's death

A police official was found dead in a room of Police Officers' Mess in Rajshahi city yesterday morning.

Sabbir Ahmed Sorfaraj, 33, an assistant commissioner of Rajpara Police Station, was found hanging from a window grille with a white nylon rope tied to his neck, said Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner M Shafiqul Islam.

Sabbir often stayed in Room No-2 on the ground floor of the four-storey dormitory after his night duty, he said.

Police recovered the body by breaking open the door eight hours after his parents reached Rajshahi from Dhaka.

RMP Assistant Commissioner Iftekhayer Alam said he committed suicide.

Enamul Haque, a forensic doctor at Rajshahi Medical College, confirmed his death by checking him through the window in the morning. “We primarily found that he committed suicide.”

Police prepared an inquest report in the presence of Executive Magistrate Sharif Ashif Rahman, who said Sabbir was found half-lying and his room was locked from inside.

Sabbir's father, M Obaidullah, a retired deputy inspector general (DIG) of police, said, “My son had no reason to commit suicide. It is mysterious. I will wait for the autopsy.”

Obaidullah, also a member of Rajshahi city unit Awami League's advisory committee, said he saw the body sitting on a sofa with a nylon rope around the neck.

Sabbir lived at his Uposhohor Housing Estate house with his wife and daughter.

His wife Nasrin Sultana Suchona, a teacher of Barind Medical College in the city and pregnant with another child, did not want to make any comment.

Sabbir went to his farmhouse in Keshabpur at 3:30am and enquired about the cattle, said Neherul Islam, its caretaker, addding, he left after some time. “He was as usual. He was not worried even. I don't believe that he committed suicide.”

Sabbir went to the police dormitory around 5:30am, a police official quoted his bodyguard as saying. The official, seeking anonymity, said an orderly of the dormitory first noticed the body sitting on the sofa around 9:30am after he had opened the window. He was asked by an officer to bring shaving foam from the room, he said. Another officer said police found a paper in his wallet where someone wrote, “I love you” with blood. The commissioner, Shafiqul Islam, said they did not find any suicide note in the room.