Staff Reporter :An Assistant Director of University Grants Commission (UGC), died in the custody of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in the city on Thursday night. Police recovered the body identified as Omar Siraj from the Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital at about 11.00pm and sent it to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) morgue for postmortem. The official was arrested on charge of leaking out medical admission test and Assistant Judge appointment question papers on September 18, said Major Maksudul Alam, Assistant Director of the Legal and Media Wing of RAB.”Three persons, including Omar Siraj, were taken to a two-day remand for interrogation into question paper leakage and forgery of employment. At one stage of interrogation, Omar Siraj felt chest pain. He was admitted to Suhrawardy Hospital at about 5.50pm and he died at night,” the RAB official said.The elite force official also claimed that Omar Siraj was suffering from heart diseases before his arrest and he died of cardiac failure.He was not tortured under RAB custody in any way, Major Maksudul Alam said. RAB-4 Operation Officer ABM Mujahidul Islam said, “Siraj was rushed to National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) after he complained of chest pain around 5:00pm. He died at the hospital around 7:30pm.”He said that Omar Siraj was the kingpin of a ring that provided students with answers with the help of Bluetooth earphones.The gang helped the candidates during test for admission to MBBS and BDS courses, and for recruitment into Bangladesh Krishi Bank, BJSC and other government organizations, the RAB official said. The victim’s wife Sabina Yasmin Shampa claimed that her husband Omar was tortured to dead at the elite force custody. She also said that her husband health was sound before the arrest. Shampa further claimed that Omar was a victim of extra-judicial killing by the RAB official. Omar died in custody at a time when students are demonstrating for a fresh medical and dental admission test, alleging the one person was held on September 18 on charge of leaking question papers, sources said. On September 18, a team of RAB-4 conducted a drive and arrested Omar Siraj and two others from the UGC office at Agargaon in the capital.The other arrested persons Apart Bangladesh Judicial Service Commission (BJSC) storekeeper Rezaul Karim, 31, and his associate Ishan Imtiaz Hridoy, 22.RAB also recovered some questions of the medical admission examination, 23 answer sheets and two questions of 2014 assistant judge appointment examination, Tk 2 lakh in cash, an Exim Bank cheque of Tk 4 lakh, stamp seals of different government offices, three mobile phones and a notebook.A case was filed against the accused with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station under section of penal code 473 and also public examination act.The UGC later had temporarily suspended Omar Siraj.
