Police headquarters have closed Officer-in-Charge of Khulna Railway Police Station Osman Gani and Sub-Inspector Nazmul Haq following allegations of their involvement in the gang-rape of a woman in custody. Earlier on Monday, police formed the three-member committee to investigate a woman’s gang-rape allegedly committed by five members of the police, including OC.
Earlier, Railway police detained the woman, a mother of three children on the night of August 2, when she was coming to Khulna from Jashore by train, on allegations of stealing a mobile phone. On August 3, police presented her before a court in a drug case, with five bottles of phensedyl.
However on August 4, the woman told the court that she was first raped by OC Osman while in custody at Khulna Railway Police Station, and then by four other policemen. The court ordered a medical check-up for her at Khulna Medical College Hospital to verify her statement. The victim alleged the accused OC bribed her family in order to cover up the crime.
Incidents of torture, killing, rape and other cruel activities in police custody are nothing new in Bangladesh. The law enforcement agency members are seldom held accountable for serious allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of people in custody. In fact, these have become synonymous with the law-enforcement agencies which affect the credibility of rule of law.
Since 2014 to May 2018; a total of 285 people were reported to have died in custody, including 119 convicts and 166 under-trial prisoners, according to Ain O Salish Kendra. Though we have no latest data till 2019, it is certain that a few dozen would be included in the list in the same way.
Just a few days ago, two policemen were arrested for allegedly raping a girl in Dhaka. In 1996, an adolescent girl Seema Chowdhury while walking with her friend was picked up and gang-raped by three policemen in custody at Rauzan police station in Chattogram. But Seema died mysteriously in “safe custody” when the investigation was going on. None has been punished for the heinous crime till the date. However, in Dinajpur Yasmin rape case-the accused policemen were punished and executed.
It is to be noted that government passed the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, with a view to eliminating custodial torture, in 2013. But what’s significant is that, there have been very few cases filed under the Torture Act and completion of cases is not mentionable. Police instead of enforcing the law have repeatedly called for the government to amend it to be less prohibitive.
Police submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015 to repeal Section 12 of the Torture Act, which states that circumstances such as war, political instability, or emergency are not considered an acceptable excuse for the Commission of torture. They also proposed that certain law enforcement units including Rapid Action Battalion, Criminal Investigations Department, Special Branch and Detective Branch be excluded from prosecution under the Act.
We can cite another example of police repression and custodial torture here – that is Minni of Barguna, the woman who was the prime witness of her husband’s murder case now becomes main accused. Minni’s father alleged that his daughter was severely tortured by police in custody. And she was forced to give confessional statement to the magistrate.
It is the use of brutal police power for the purpose of silencing political opposition that the people are panic stricken and fear sways everywhere. Police were openly used to terrorise the people for making the government to win 289 seats out of 300 seats in the parliament in the last general election. It is not just stealing the election for the government, the larger picture is to destroy democracy. Now for the police to commit crime has become a big headache for the high-ups in the police.
