Fardin’s Death: They now say it’s suicide

Police and Rab are now saying that Buet student Fardin Noor Parash died by suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Shitalakkhya.

"Considering all aspects, it appears that Fardin died by suicide. His last known location was on the Sultana Kamal Bridge in Demra," Detective Branch Chief Mohammad Harun Or Rashid told reporters at his office yesterday evening.

It also seems Fardin was mentally disturbed and he was wandering from one place to another that night, he added.

Rab yesterday also changed its earlier statement with spokesperson Khandaker Al Moin saying that Fardin jumped into the river at 2:34am.

He might have suffered the injuries to his head and chest when he hit the base of the bridge pillar, he said.

Moin earlier claimed that Fardin might have been killed in Narayanganj's Chonpara by local drug dealer Raihan Mahmud and his gang members.

About his earlier claim, Moin yesterday evening said Rab officers had the suspicions after verifying circumstantial evidence and statements of some locals.

Asked whether the detectives consulted a psychiatrist before concluding that Fardin was disturbed, Deputy Commissioner (Motijheel) Rajib Al Masud replied in the negative.

He added that previous suicide cases were compared with this case.

This newspaper contacted a psychiatrist over the issue. On condition of anonymity, the psychiatrist said it was difficult to say whether Fardin died by suicide solely based on the fact that he had been wandering the streets of Dhaka before his death.

Fardin's father Kazi Nooruddin cast doubt on the claims of the DB and Rab.

"It is not certain that Fardin was on the bridge," Nooruddin told The Daily Star over phone after the DB press conference.

"How did he get from Rampura to Jatrabari?" he asked. He, however, hung up saying he had an important call to receive and would call back. But he did not call back or answer his phone later.

Nooruddin had earlier told this paper, "Fardin saw ups and downs in the family and handled every situation head-on. He is a fighter. A boy like him can never do something like that."

The DB, which was tasked to investigate the case, said that after dropping his friend Amatullah Bushra off at Rampura on November 4 night, Fardin roamed aimlessly and did not meet anyone.

Nooruddin on December 2 told this newspaper: "Fardin might've been picked up and taken across the city at gunpoint. He might've been forced to follow the perpetrators' instructions… The investigators should show us the CCTV footage of all locations… The boy used to come home by 11:00pm. Why would he roam like that in dodgy locations?".

Both the DB and Rab, however, could not say how Fardin went from Rampura to Jinjira, Babubazar, Johnson Road, Gulistan and Jatrabari where he was seen around 2:00am in CCTV footage.

On November 7, the decomposing body of Fardin Noor Parash, a third-year student of civil engineering of Buet, was recovered from the Shitalakkhya in Narayanganj's Siddhirganj, three days after he went missing.

On December 3, the DB said they were trying to determine whether he had died by suicide.

WHAT DB SAID

The DB chief said, "He wandered around that night because he was going through psychological problems.

"Fardin was an introvert. He could not share everything with everyone. His results were gradually deteriorating. He had a CGPA of 3.15 in the first semester. Then his results started going down gradually and it stood at 2.67. None of his family or relatives knew about this."

He said Fardin needed Tk 60,000 to go to Spain for a debate competition, but he was struggling to gather the money. He received Tk 40,000 from his friends.

"Fardin used to impart private lessons. With this money, he used to pay for his as well as his two younger brothers' education. Still, he had to maintain discipline at his home like returning home early. He would not stay in the dorm. He was under some kind of pressure, which he could not accept."

The DB chief said Fardin went to Babubazar Bridge. As the bridge was busy from 10:53pm to 11:09pm, he probably backed out and went to the bridge in Demra instead.

"It appears that Fardin was last standing right in the middle of that bridge," he said citing the last location reported by his phone.

He also mentioned that Fardin did not know how to swim.

Police also have Fardin's  with a  of his in messenger and telegram apps, according to a written statement DB officials distributed at the briefing.

Fardin has expressed his frustration many times in those conversations. According to that friend, he was depressed.

Noting that no injury marks were found in Fardin's medical report, Harun said the viscera report was yet to be released.

The doctor who conducted the autopsy had previously said initial reports indicated head injuries but those injuries are minor and can only lead to one becoming unconscious. The doctor also told the media at that time that there were numerous injury marks on his head.

"If there were numerous injury marks, it would have come up in the police report," Harun argued.

WHAT RAB SAID

Khandaker Al Moin said that after roaming around Science Lab intersection, Nilkhet, Dhanmondi, Dhaka University campus from around 5:00pm, Fardin got down from a rickshaw around 10:00pm in Rampura Bridge area and roamed around there for some time.

Technical analysis shows that he later went to Jinjira in Keraniganj, adjacent to Babubazar Bridge, Johnson Road in Old Dhaka and the Underground Market area in Gulistan.

Analysing CCTV footage, it is known that at 2:01am Fardin was seen getting into a human haulier at Bibirbagicha in Jatrabari.

Fardin got down from the vehicle at a bus stop on Tarabo Bishwa Road on the eastern end of Sultana Kamal Bridge around 02:20am, Moin said.

At 2:34am, he was almost in the middle of the Sultana Kamal Bridge. The distance from the Tarabo end of the bridge to the centre of the Sultana Kamal Bridge is approximately 400-500 meters, said Moin.

At 2:34.09am he crossed the railing of the bridge and at 2.34.16am he jumped off the bridge. At 2.35.09am, Fardin's mobile phone turned off.

At 2:51am, Fardin's watch stopped working, Moin said.