The relatives of a man, who died early Thursday at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital just two and a half hours after being arrested from the capital’s Shahjahanpur area, have alleged that he was tortured in police custody.
Police picked up Saiful Islam Mithu, 38, and two other men around 10pm on Wednesday when they reportedly failed to produce documents for a motorbike they were riding on.
Ziauzzaman, officer-in-charge of Shahjahanpur police station, said the men were riding the motorbike without helmets, and they failed to show any registration papers.
The police officer also claimed that all three men were drug addicts and they threatened police during arrest.
At the police station, Mithu complained of chest pains, the officer said. Police rushed him to the DMCH, where doctors declared him dead around 12:30am.
However, Mithu’s family members denied that he took drugs, and alleged that he was tortured to death in police custody.
“Mithu was not a drug addict. He did not have any cardiac problems that could have led to fatal chest pains,” Alamgir Hossain, a cousin of the victim and a bank official, said.
Regarding Wednesday night’s incident, he said, “Mithu and some of his friends were taking tea at a roadside stall. At one stage, inspector of civil team Nurul Islam and sub-inspector Kayes of Shahjahanpur police appeared at the scene.”
Mithu and his friends got into a row with the officers over showing of the motorbike’s registration papers, and police detained three of them.
Ziauzzaman refuted the family’s claims, saying Mithu and two others were arrested as they came out of Titipara slum after taking drugs. He also denied that Mithu was tortured in custody.
The two other detainees, Rafiquzzaman, 35, and Babu, 35, were being held at Shahjahanpur police station until the filing of this report last night.
Moreover, DMCH morgue sources said they did not find any signs of fresh injuries on the victim’s body during an autopsy. His body was handed over to family members Thursday evening.
Alamgir said Mithu, from Palashnagar in Narsingdi, used to work at a private company and lived with his older brother at Gulbagh in Malibagh. He had completed his honours degree in accounting from Tejgaon College.