Man dies in police custody
Cops say suicide; family alleges he was tortured to death
Yet another arrestee allegedly died by suicide in police custody on Monday night, making it at least the fourth such incident to have happened in the country this year.
Lebu Miah, 55, was arrested that night in Bashtoail village of Tangail's Mirzapur in a case over the death of a woman, reports our Tangail correspondent quoting police.
He "took his life" at the Bashtoail Police Outpost sometime Monday night. The police outpost was not under CCTV coverage, claimed police.
The deceased, a resident of Bashtoail, was a day labourer. His wife Aleya Begum alleged that her husband was tortured to death following arrest.
Yesterday, family members and locals blocked the Gorai-Sakhipur road around 2:00pm for about one and a half hours protesting the death in custody.
Sheikh Abu Saleh Masud Karim, officer-in-charge of Mirzapur Police Station, said 40-year-old Sakhina Akhtar of Bashtoil village was found dead in her home on Monday afternoon.
Her brother Badsha Mia filed a case with Mirzapur Police Station the same day, accusing Sakhina's ex-husband Mofizur Rahman, her neighbour Lebu Miah and several others unnamed.
A police team from Bashtoil Police Outpost picked up Mofizur and Lebu on Monday night, the OC told The Daily Star.
After interrogation, the arrestees were kept in two separate cells at the police outpost, he added.
He claimed that Lebu committed suicide by hanging himself from the ventilator of the cell.
The body was brought down in the morning in presence of Aminul Islam Bulbul, assistant commissioner (land) in Mirzapur.
Aminul said there was no injury mark on the body, but there was a black mark around his throat.
Contacted, Tangail Additional Superintendent of Police (crime) Shariful Islam said an inquiry committee would be formed to investigate whether there was any negligence on the part of the police in the death of Lebu.
Police handed over the body to the family members around 5:30pm yesterday after an autopsy at the Tangail General Hospital morgue.
On September 14, 22-year-old Rajesh Roy allegedly died by suicide in police custody in Jhalakathi. Police claimed that he hanged himself from the ceiling fan.
In mid-August, another such incident happened in the capital's Hatirjheel Police Station where Sumon Sheikh, a 25-year-old deliveryman, allegedly took his life. His family had alleged that he was tortured to death.
In January, Himangshu Roy, 36, allegedly hung himself from the window grilles of a cell at a police station in Hatibandha, Lalmonirhat.
Hatibandha police had claimed that the CCTV cameras installed at the cell were not working during the incident.