Policeman 'helped' main culprit flee

With people continuing to protest the brutal killing of 13-year-old Rajon, the victim's father yesterday alleged that a police official in Sylhet took bribe and helped one of the accused flee the country.

Rajon's father Sheikh Md Azizur Rahman said that Aminul Islam, sub-inspector of Jalalabad Police Station, cut a Tk 12 lakh deal with the accused and helped Kamrul Islam flee to Saudi Arabia.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday morning, Azizur said, "Aminul was paid Tk 6 lakh cash and the rest was supposed to be given after Kamrul's arrival in Saudi Arabia."

Getting Kamrul's brother Muhit off the hook was also a part of the deal, he claimed.

Following his allegations, SI Aminul was withdrawn from duties yesterday. The Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) commissioner asked him to report at his office as soon as possible, reports our Moulvibazar correspondent.

The SMP also formed a three-member probe committee, headed by Additional Police Commissioner SM Rokon Uddin, to investigate the allegations against the SI, said SMP Police Commissioner Kamrul Ahsan.

"The committee will submit its report in three days," he said.

Rajon's father also alleged that when he went to Jalalabad Police Station to file a case on the night of Rajon's death, he was told that the police had already filed a case in this connection.

As he wanted to know whether Kamrul and Muhit's names were included as accused in the case, SI Aminul told him that he was giving wrong information, as none of them were present at the time of the incident.

"Put the paper here. We will see it later," Azizur quoted Aminul as saying.

Contacted, Aminul denied all the allegations.

He said he talked to Azizur for less than a minute when the latter came to identify his son's body. "A vested quarter is trying to set me up," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Akhtar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Jalalabad police, said he did not know anything about it. "I was not at the station that day," he said.

He, however, said he had not seen Kamrul or Muhit's name as accused in the case when he first took a look at the case statement.

Their names were included as two of the four accused later. The other two accused are Moyna Mia and Haider Ali.

Meanwhile, Moyna Mia was arrested yesterday from the Tuker Bazar area in Sylhet around 10:30pm.

On Monday, Saudi police detained Kamrul in a suburb of Jeddah. He is now in police custody in Nazlah district.

Muhit, the prime accused in the murder case, was arrested earlier and is now on a five-day remand.

In the video footage that went viral on Sunday, Kamrul was seen beating Md Samiul Alam Rajon mercilessly. He, his brother Muhit Alam and some others beat the minor boy to death in Kumargaon Bus Stand area of Sylhet on the morning of July 8. One of them filmed the brutal beating and shared it on social media, sparking outrage at home and abroad.

Kamrul, who was seen in a black T-shirt and lungi hitting the boy with a stick in the feet, joints of legs and shoulders, and the head, confessed to having beaten the boy.

Mobile phone footage from Jeddah, where he was captured by Bangladeshi migrants, showed him saying that he beat up the kid. He, however, claimed that the boy was still alive when he had left the spot.

But it is still uncertain whether Kamrul can be brought back from Saudi Arabia before Eid, according to Bangladesh officials in Jeddah.

"Since Saudis went on Eid holidays yesterday, it is not certain if we will be able to send Kamrul back home before Eid," Mokammal Hossain, counsellor (labour) at Bangladesh Consulate in Jeddah, told The Daily Star yesterday.

After detaining Kamrul, the office of Bangladesh consulate in the kingdom filed a case against him.

The Bangladesh consulate is working to send him back to Bangladesh as soon as possible, said Mokammal.

Asked how Kamrul would be extradited since there is no extradition treaty between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, he said the two countries have a very friendly relationship and expressed his hope of getting cooperation from the Saudi authorities in this regard.

Meanwhile, A Sylhet court yesterday gave police five days to grill Ismail Hossain alias Abluch in custody who is a suspect in the murder of Rajon.

PROTEST RALLY

The sickening 28-minute torture video shook the nation to its core and triggered an outcry in social and mainstream media.

A few thousand people held a protest rally at Kumargaon point in Sylhet around 1:00pm yesterday. People from neighbouring areas joined the rally to demand exemplary punishment for the culprits who killed Rajon.

Earlier, separate human chains were formed in different areas in Bandar, Chouhatta, Pathantula and Akhali. The protesters joined the rally afterwards.

"This incident is barbaric and inhuman, which tarnished the image of Sylhet's people. The perpetrators deserve to be hanged, nothing short of that," said Prof Sujat Ali, a teacher at a local college.

Azizur was supposed to speak in the rally, but he fell unconscious. He was taken to Sylhet Osmani Medical College and Hospital.

In Dhaka, Shishu-Kishor Mela, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Samajtantrik Mahila Forum and Bigyan Andolon Mancha jointly organised a protest rally and human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club protesting Rajon's murder.

The speakers at the programme said it is not possible to establish good governance if the culture of impunity persists.

"When criminals have connection with police, they manage to get released even after committing such crimes. Such practices create anarchy in society," said Shampa Basu, general secretary of Samajtantrik Mahila Forum.

Organising Secretary of Samajtantrik Sramik Front Khalequzzaman Lipon demanded punishment of the culprits involved in Rajon's killing by holding trial at the Speedy Trial Tribunal.

Different organisations also formed human chains in Manikganj, Mymensingh, Pirojpur and Bogra, report our local correspondents.