Man dies in police custody
Family alleges he died of torture
A 30-year-old man died hours after police arrested him at his house in Jamalpur's Melandaha upazila Sunday afternoon.
Family members of the deceased, Sohel Rana, alleged that he died of police torture and that they saw injury marks on the neck of the body.
“Sohel was not diagnosed with anything and I cannot think of any reason why a healthy person would die in such a short time if not tortured,” claimed Zakir Hossain, Sohel's younger brother.
Sohel did not have to visit a doctor in about a year, he said, adding that his brother was a fish farmer.
Contacted, Mazharul Karim, officer-in-charge of Melandaha Police Station, said Sohel was in good health when arrested at his house and he might have died of a “stroke”.
A resident of Paharipatol village, Sohel was held with drugs in his possession around 5:00pm, and around 7:30pm, he suddenly started throwing up and complained of chest pains, the OC said.
Police first took him to Melandaha Health Complex and then to Jamalpur General Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
Sohel's mother Jyotsna, who claimed to be present at the house when Sohel was arrested, said, “They [police] rummaged through everything in the house but didn't find any drugs.”
A doctor at the health complex told The Daily Star that Sohel did not have any heartbeat when he was brought in.
Jamalpur Executive Magistrate Imranul Haque, who conducted the inquest, said he found no injury marks on the body and thought it was a natural death.
Sohel's brother Zakir, however, contradicted this saying he and his father saw injury marks on Sohel's neck after his death.
The executive magistrate added that an autopsy was done yesterday as Sohel died in police custody.
He said Sohel was brought dead at Jamalpur General Hospital around 8:45pm and the inquest was performed in less than an hour at the hospital morgue.
Asked about the allegation, OC Mazharul said Sohel was arrested with 25 yaba tablets and five grammes of heroin. “Drug addicts are physically weak anyway,” he added.
Zakir admitted that Sohel used to take drugs. “But he had been clean for the last couple of months.”