Father claims police forced him to file case against son-in-law
A case was filed with Shah Makhdum Police Station in Rajshahi yesterday for provoking the death by suicide of Liza Rahman who set herself on fire outside the police facility on Saturday and passed away on Wednesday.
Police claimed Liza’s father Mohammad Alam filed the case accusing her husband Shakhawat Hossain, Shakhawat’s parents Mahabubul Alam and Naznin Begum, and other family members.
The plaintiff of the case Mohammad Alam, however, denied filing it by himself.
He alleged that some police officials of Govindaganj Police Station in Gaibandha picked him up from his home, took him to Shah Makhdum Police Station in Rajshahi in a rented microbus, and forced him to sign the computer-composed case paper.
“I was waiting to see the remains of my daughter…I told them I will file the case after her burial and after consulting with other family members… But they did not listen,” he said.
“Police is as responsible as her in-laws for the death of my daughter. They forced me to sign the case [paper] to save their skin,” he said, adding, “When my daughter went to them seeking help, they [police] could have called us.”
Liza’s step-brother Shihab Ahmed said, police officials from Shah Makhdum Police Station contacted him several times since Liza’s death at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Wednesday morning.
“They were asking me to go to Rajshahi for filing the case. They said they would buy me a plane ticket to Rajshahi,” Shihab said. They picked up Liza’s father as he denied, he added.
He said Liza in her dying statement, recorded by doctors, said that she was devastated by her husband’s -- pressured by his family -- mistreatment and him seeking divorce. Her in-laws also apparently pressured her for divorce.
She also said that she lost all hope after police belittled her marriage and denied assistance when she went to the police station seeking protection of her marriage.
The case does not mention that police belittled her marriage and denied assistance that led to the tragic incident.
When contacted, Masud Parvez, OC of Shah Makhdum Police Station, denied that they took Alam to Rajshahi and forced him to file the case.
“He himself came to Rajshahi, in a rented microbus,” he said.
The OC, however, acknowledged that they sought assistance of Govindaganj police to ask the family members to come to Rajshahi for filing the case.
When contacted, Mehdi Hasan, OC of Gonvindaganj Police Station, said that they acted on request of Shah Makhdum police.
“Assisted by a local ward councillor, we called him to our police station and sent him along with three other villagers to Rajshahi in a microbus,” he said.
In January this year, Liza Rahman, an 18-year-old HSC student of Rajshahi Women’s Government College secretly married Shakhawat Hossain, 19, an HSC student of Rajshahi City Government College.
Since learning of their marriage, Shakhawat’s family members had been pressuring them to divorce each other. On Saturday, Shakhawat finally gave in to his parents’ pressure and asked Liza for divorce.
Becoming upset, Liza went to the police, asking them to intervene to protect her marriage.
When the police denied her assistance, as claimed by the family members, she decided to set herself on fire near the police station.
Locals and police took her to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. That afternoon, a police team took her to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where Liza lost the battle for life on Wednesday morning.
The autopsy was performed at DMCH morgue and then her family members took her body to their village home in Boalia under Govindaganj in Gaibandha. She was buried at their family graveyard beside Boalia Mosque yesterday morning.
A two-member committee headed by Rajshahi Metropolitan Police’s Additional Commissioner Salma Begum is investigating into the incident.
A committee of National Human Rights Commission is also investigating into the incident. Al-Mahmud Faizul Kabir, a director of the commission, is heading the four-member committee.
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