Death of Psychiatric Patient: Rehab centre owner, staffers sent to jail

The owner and two staffers of a rehabilitation centre in Mirpur upazila of Kushtia were sent to jail yesterday after police arrested them on charge of providing wrong treatment and mercilessly beating a college student who eventually died. 

Police on Wednesday night arrested Samarpan rehabilitation centre owner Abdul Matin (54), its supervisor Habib Uddin Malitha (52) and staffer Mintu Hossain (26).

The chief judicial magistrate’s court in Kushtia sent all three to jail after police produced them before the court.

The deceased is Kamruzzaman Imon (19), an honours student of Rajshahi City College. He died on November 20.

“After interrogation, the arrestees said they injected Imon with sedatives to control him,” said Abul Kalam, officer-in-charge of Mirpur Police Station, adding that they did not consult a registered physician for doing so and there was no full-time doctor  to operate and supervise the centre. 

Although Imon’s family always claimed that he never took drugs, officials at the centre strongly believed otherwise, the OC said, relaying information extracted during interrogation.

“We strongly suspect that wrong treatment was the cause of his death,” he said, adding that the autopsy report will make it clear.

Authorities of the rehabilitation centre claimed Imon died from cardiac arrest, but a leaked CCTV footage showed a group indiscriminately beating Imon after tying his arms and legs the night before his death.

Upazila Health Officer Selim Uddin Farazi, who examined Imon’s body, said he found marks on the body which suggested that Imon was tortured before death.

Although Imon’s family did not file any complaint at the time, police raided the centre and arrested the three after the CCTV footage went viral on social media.

Imon’s father Ezazul Azim Ripon filed a case with Mirpur Police Station yesterday, accusing six persons in this connection.

Ezazul said the college student had been suffering from schizophrenia. The family, at first, took Imon to Pabna Mental Hospital as his condition deteriorated.

However, they did not have the required documents to admit Imon there, so they admitted him to Samarpan on November 19, he said.