Mirpur custodial death: Judicial enquiry ordered

Rabbi, 5, sits next to his mother and shows The Daily Star correspondent how he pleaded with policemen for his father's life on July 14. His father, Mahbubur Rahman Sujan was tortured to death allegedly in custody of Mirpur police. Photo: STAR

A Dhaka court today ordered a judicial enquiry into the custodial death of garment-waste trader Mahbubur Rahman Sujan hours after the victim’s wife filed a murder case against 10 people including five police personnel of Mirpur Police Station.

Sujan’s wife Momtaz Sultana Lucy lodged the case with the Court of Metropolitan Sessions Judges in Dhaka in the morning.

Five policemen including Officer-in-charge of Salahuddin Khan and Sub-inspector Jahidur Rahman Khan and five informants of police have been made accused in the case.

Among the accused, the OC has been made the prime accused.

The other police personnel were identified as Raj Kumar, assistant sub-inspector and constables Asad and Rashedul while the five sources are Nasim Sheikh, Mithun, Faisal, Khokon and Palash.

After hearing the complaints, Judge Md Zahirul Haque passed the order asking the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Dhaka to take initiatives for judicial investigation into the case.

The case was lodged under Torture and Custodial Death (Protection) Act-2013. According to the Act, the accused will get capital punishment if they would be found guilty in the trial.

The move came three days after a case was filed against SI Jahid, who allegedly tortured Sujan to death on July 13 at the police station.

SI Jahid was detained on Wednesday by law enforcers at Rupnagar of Mirpur in the capital following an autopsy report mentioned that Sujan had died of torture.

Mirpur police also detained police source Nasim after going through the CCTV footage at the police station.

Earlier, Lucy told The Daily Star that police raided their Sankar home and beat her and Sujan up. Then they took the couple along with their son Rabbi to the police station and kept Sujan in a separate room. She heard her husband screaming in pain from the other room.

In the morning, she was let go but not before signing the paper.

“The officer-in-charge of Mirpur Police Station threatened to implicate me in an arms case if I did not sign the paper,” she said adding that she was informed her husband was dead around noon in the day.