College Girl’s Death: Bashundhara MD cleared of charges in police probe

Police have cleared Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir of the charges of abetting the death of a college student by suicide in a Gulshan flat in April.

The officer investigating the case filed a probe report with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on July 19. The court set July 29 to decide whether it will accept the report.

The 21-year-old student's elder sister who filed the case said she will file a no-confidence petition against the probe report.

Investigation Officer Abul Hasan, the officer-in-charge of Gulshan Police Station, wrote in the report that no evidence of Anvir abetting the victim to commit suicide was found.

He appealed to the court to relieve the accused from the charges, said an employee of General Recording Office (GRO) at the CMM Court.

Two days after the body of the college student was recovered on April 26, Sudip Chakrabarty, the then deputy commissioner (Gulshan division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said that six diaries of the college student contained crucial evidence supporting the allegations brought against Anvir.

"The victim's utter frustration and mental breakdown are reflected in her diaries, that we have seized. Her writings will be important evidence," the DC told reporters at his office.

Sudip said, "... She wrote [in the diary] about their relationship, the social barriers to recognition of the relationship, her expectation of a happy conjugal life with the accused and the barriers from his family."

She detailed her serious frustration in her diaries and these will be the key to establishing the case, he said at the time.

Sudip didn't answer his phone when The Daily Star repeatedly called him for comments on the latest turn of events.

The victim's elder sister said, " Police said Anvir's name was written on different parts of my sister's body. Photos of Anvir and her were hung on the walls of her bedroom. Their flat was decorated with their photographs. The texts and call records in her two phones showed that she expressed her frustration about the relationship. Also, the social barriers to their relationship indicate strong evidence against Anvir for abetting the death of my sister."

She added that police said they found CCTV footage of Anvir visiting Munia's flat before April 26.

"I was not informed by the investigation officer (IO) about the final report before it was submitted to the court.

"When I came to know about the final report of the case from the media, I called the IO, but he did not answer my calls. I will file a no-confidence petition before the court against the final report after learning the details of the matter."

IO Abul Hasan told this correspondent that he would not comment about the matter.

On April 26, police recovered the body of the 21-year-old woman, hanging from the ceiling fan of her bedroom in Gulshan. Her feet were touching the bed and both knees were a little bent.

Soon after the case was filed, the court issued a ban on Anvir from travelling abroad after the IO filed an application seeking the ban on April 27.

Anvir did not get bail from any court in the case recorded as a "cognisable offence", CMM court officials said.

Under section 4 (f) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), "Cognisable Case" means police can arrest the accused without any warrant, said legal experts.

There are multiple instances in the capital of police arresting individuals involved in abetting victims for dying by suicide, they added.

For example, six people, including a sub-inspector of Khilgaon Police Station, were arrested soon after a case was filed over abetting death by suicide of Simi Banu in the capital's Khilgaon area on December 23, 2001.

Simi, a final-year student of Narayanganj Institute of Fine Arts, killed herself after she was tormented by the six arrestees.

But police or other law enforcers were rather indifferent in the case against Anvir by not arresting him even though he was in public without a bail, said lawyers.