Police on Wednesday allegedly beat a poor roadside tea stall owner to death after he refused to pay Tk1,000 demanded by them at Nabinagar in Savar.
Sathi Akhter, the wife of victim Ripon Miah, 26, said around 9pm on Wednesday police picked up Ripon near his tea stall in front of the National Monument.
Later they informed Ripon’s family members that Ripon had sustained injuries in a road accident and died.
The street vendor who comes from Moheshpur village under Bakherganj upazila of Barisal lived with his wife at Niribili area adjacent to the National Monument.
“They killed my husband for only Tk1,000,” Sathi, who was present on the spot during the incident, told reporters at the DMCH morgue. She just got off a bus after a visit to his village home and Ripon went there to receive her when police picked him up.
“Sub-Inspector of Ashulia Police Station Anwar Hossain and two plain-clothed police appeared there and grabbed my husband’s collar saying that my husband was a criminal and there were cases against him with the police station.
“They then demanded Tk1,000 in return for his release. As my husband said he had no money they started to beat him and I ran to the other side of the road in fear. They whisked him off in a police van,” she said.
“Constable Imdadul Haque and Ruhul Amin were also with the SI,” she said adding that local street vendors confirmed their identities.
“I tried to release him from the police station but failed. Our relatives talked to Ripon over phone when Ripon was at the police station,” she said.
In the early hours, a policeman called Ripon’s friend over the phone and told him that Ripon was crushed under the wheels of a vehicle and taken to the Ganasasthay Hospital in Savar.
“We rushed to the hospital and found a police constable sitting behind my husband’s body. The policeman said, Ripon had died,” Sathi said.
Sathi also claimed that the policemen forced her to put a signature on a white paper at the hospital.
On-duty doctor at the hospital Koushik Ahmed said, police took Ripon to the hospital when he was already dead. His body bore injury marks.
The morgue sources at DMCH where Ripon’s post-mortem was conducted in the afternoon also said his body had marks of injuries.
Rasel Sheikh, assistant police superintendent of Dhaka District said he heard Ripon sustained injuries in a road accident when he was trying to escape. Locals rushed him to the hospital.
“His inquest report was prepared in presence of a magistrate and the body was sent to the DMCH morgue for an autopsy. As Ripon’s wife raised allegations of torture we will take departmental action against the policemen if the post-mortem report terms it a murder,” he said.
A three-member probe committee headed by Additional SP of Dhaka District Shayamol Kumar Mitra has also been formed to investigate the incident. The committee visited the spot yesterday and talked to witnesses.
Meanwhile, after the autopsy Ripon’s family members took the body to his village home at Bakherganj upazila.
In the evening Sathi told the Dhaka Tribune over phone that they received Ripon’s body.
“We are poor people. We don’t want the police put us in more trouble. Please, forget that my husband was murdered,” she sobbed.