BNP man dies after 'jumping off building to evade arrest'
A BNP supporter, who according to his party workers and family, had jumped off the fourth floor of a building in the port city's EPZ area to evade arrest, died of his injuries yesterday at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH).
Mohammad Russel, 35, was an employee of a metal workshop on Barrister College Road in EPZ area. He jumped off a building, located in Mailar Matha area of EPZ, in the early hours of yesterday when plainclothes police were conducting a raid there, claimed his family members and sources at BNP.
Rokon Uddin Mahmud, general secretary of BNP's EPZ thana unit, said over phone, “Russel was a supporter of BNP; he jumped off from the building's fourth floor to evade arrest when plainclothes policemen went to the area in early morning and chased him.”
Denying the allegation, EPZ Police Station's Officer-in-Charge Mir Nurul Huda told The Daily Star, “Plainclothes police didn't conduct any raid in the area early morning yesterday.”
“He stands accused in four cases including for vandalism and sabotage [during political violence in 2015], narcotics, and rape after abduction,” the OC claimed.
Russel was critically injured after he “mysteriously fell off” the fourth floor of a building around 2am and later succumbed to his injuries at CMCH in the morning, he said, adding that they were investigating how Russel had fallen off the building.
A relative of Russel said, “Russel was a supporter of BNP and often attended programmes of the party.”
“After Russel's death, police took Russel's father Safi Alam to EPZ Police Station; he was there for a few hours,” he also claimed.
Seeking anonymity, an official of EPZ Police Station said, “While at the police station, Safi Alam submitted a written paper, saying that Russel fell off the building's fourth floor when he tried to escape by climbing down the [utility] pipeline after he heard that a police drive was being conducted in the area.”
Speaking with this correspondent at the CMCH morgue last evening, Safi Alam, a Bhola native, said, “I was informed about the incident around 2am and came rushing to the hospital around 3am. I don't know exactly what had happened. A few years back, police arrested Russel over a political case and he was put behind bars for six months,” he said, while being escorted by six police members.
OC Nurul Huda of EPZ Police Station said a case of unnatural death was filed with the police station.
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