Court Correspondent :
A Dhaka court yesterday ordered a judicial investigation into the alleged custodial death of garment-waste scrap-cloth trader Mahbubur Rahman Sujon at Mirpur Model Police Station in the capital.
Earlier in the morning on Sunday, his wife Mamtaj Sultana Lucy lodged a case against 10 people, including five policemen of Mirpur Police Station and five informants of police. Officer-in-Charge of the Police Station, Salauddin Ahmed and Sub-Inspector Jahidur Rahman were made accused in the case.
Judge Md Jahurul Haque of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions’ Judge’s Court.admitted the case. Six people, including the complainant, were named as witnesses.
On July 12, a police team led by SI Jahid detained Sujon, his wife and 5-year-old son from their Shankar residence and took them to Mirpur Model Police Station.
Sujon’s family members claimed that police had tortured him in a separate room of the Police Station. Doctors declared him dead the following day when he was taken to hospital.
SI Jahid was suspended hours after Sujon’s family had pointed the finger at him.
He was arrested on Wednesday after the post-mortem report said the scrap-cloth trader had been murdered.
A day later, police accused eight men, including SI Jahid, in a murder case over Sujon’s death. On July 17, a Dhaka court sent him on a five-day remand.
The other accused are: ASI ‘Rajkumar’, constables ‘Asad’ and ‘Rashidul’, police informers ‘Nasim’, ‘Faysal’, ‘Khokon’, ‘Polash’, and ‘Mithun’.
Sujon’s elder brother Maqsudur Rahman alleged Jahidur had threatened to close down his brother’s business if he failed to pay Tk 100,000 per month the SI had demanded.
Sujon was tortured to death as he did not pay the money, Maqsudur Rahman claimed.
Police have formed a committee, headed by Mirpur division Additional DC Jashim Uddin to investigate the accusations.
The family claims Mirpur police OC Salauddin Khan, too, was an accomplice to the killing.
