A youth named Masud Rana, 35, died in the custody of Paltan Model police station on Tuesday night.
Though police claim he was arrested from Gulistan of Dhaka, Masud’s family say it was at Kanchpur of Narayanganj.
He was apprehended, however, along with Momin with 300 yaba pills, said Walid Hossain, deputy commissioner [media] of Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP].
“He had consumed yaba pills at the time of his detention. He went restless because of yaba and suddenly collapsed on the ground and sustained head injuries around 10:30pm,” Walid claimed.
At first, the arrestee was taken to Central Police Hospital, then to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where on-duty doctors declared him dead, the DC added.
The cause of the death will be known once the autopsy is done, Walid also said.
DMCH police outpost in-charge Inspector Bachchu Mia said the body was sent to the DMC morgue for an autopsy.
Masud was living in the West Dehakar area of Kanchpur in Narayanganj district, along with his wife Rehana Akter and two little daughters.
Masud hailed from Manikganj and worked at Faisal Steel Rerolling Mills in Kanchpur as a welder.
‘Masud was tortured to death’
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, Rehana said Masud left home for work at around 8am, and had last talked with him over phone at 10am Tuesday.
She came to know about his detention at 9pm through his brother-in-law, who talked to Masud over the phone.
After learning about the death at about 1am, she rushed to Dhaka.
“My husband was seen making a plea to the police, not to give his name in the case as he has children,” she said, claiming police showed the CCTV footage.
“At one point he had a scuffle with a few policemen. Later on, he was dizzy and bumped into the wall twice and collapsed,” she sighed.
Abu Hanif, paternal cousin of Rehana, echoed the same after watching the CCTV footage.
Rehena claims her husband could have been tortured to death.
“He [Masud] welded rods rods, and is very strong. If he was not tortured, why would he feel dizzy?” she questioned.
Asked if her husband was a drug addict, Rehena said that ten years ago he served jail for two days for taking phensedyl.
“After that I didn’t see him having drugs,” she added.
Family denies yaba allegation
Masud’s family said he was picked up by police from Sonargaon and was tortured to death at the police station.
His father-in-law Abdul Mannan said: “Masud was picked up by police from in front of Sinha Textiles at Kanchpur, Sonargaon, on Tuesday.
“We later heard that he was in Paltan police station. I even spoke to one of the police from the police station but they did not allow me to speak to Masud. Then around 11pm, we heard that he fell sick and was taken to DMCH.”
Police also reportedly raided Momin’s den for narcotics with the help of Masud, claims Rehana, claiming that she had talked with Momin’s wife about it.
When asked about the matter, Sonargaon police station OC Rafikul Islam said no anti-narcotics raid was conducted at the house. “No such incident happened. We have not arrested people named Masud and Momin.”
However, to know further about the arrest, Dhaka Tribune repeatedly called different police officials of Motijheel division and Paltan police station several times but no one responded.
His family claimed it was a pre-planned murder by the police and demanded justice be served.