POLICE in Barguna have beaten to death an innocent man in custody after failing to extort a big amount of money from him. The victim Shanu Hawlader was tortured by police mercilessly until death. Police then hanged him from the ceiling fan in the OC’s (Investigation) room and claimed that “the victim committed suicide”. The horrific incident took place on March 26 morning -on the 50th Independence Day. What’s true is that police in many cases have turned into organised due to absence of accountability and being sure of getting impunity. In this specific case, we want exemplary punishment of the police-turned-killers. A three-member probe committee has been formed to investigate the death inside the police station. Meanwhile, Barguna’s Amtali police station OC (Investigation) Manoranjan Mistri and Duty Officer Arifur Rahman have been suspended over ‘negligence of duty’, though victim’s family members alleged that Manoranjan and Arifur killed Shanu when they failed to give Taka 3 lakh as per their demand.
On the other hand, OC Abdul Bashar first time claimed that Shanu hanged himself from the ceiling fan inside the cell of police station. But he admitted the fault later. Shanu was picked up for questioning from his home on March 23 on suspicion of involvement in the murder of one Ibrahim back in 2019. His son Sakib Hossain said, his father was picked up by police so they could extort money from him in exchange for his release. Sakib said he was refused to meet his father on March 25 when he wanted to give some food. Whatever the reason behind picking up Shanu, one thing is crystal clear that he was killed in police custody due to police brutality. Now police are trying to suppress the facts.
Torture in custody is a long-standing tradition of our law enforcement agencies. Talented officers come and go, but none of them ever takes any sincere steps to stop the brutal practice.
