A man accused in a case filed over cattle stealing has been allegedly tortured in police custody.
A Kushtia court after inspecting the medical reports of the victim Ashraful Islam, 42, has ordered the district's Superintendent of Police (SP) to further investigate the matter on Thursday.
Kushtia SP SM Tanvir Arafat on Monday said instructions of the court in this regard are yet to reach him and necessary actions will be taken when it does.
"After inspecting documents, victim's medical certificate and testimony, it has initially appeared to the court that there is truth in the allegations of custodial torture," says the order copy issued by Md Mohsin Hasan, judge of Kushtia Chief Judicial Magistrate Court.
In the early hours of November 9, police took Ashraful to Kushtia's Islamic University police station on charges of stealing cows.
There police tortured him and threatened him for life so that he would testify at court admitting that he stole cows, according to a plea made to the court by the victim Ashraf Ali.
Police showed Ashraf arrested 36 hours after he was taken into custody and produced him in front of the court to give confessional statement under section 164 of the Code of the Criminal Procedure.
Watching clear signs of injury marks on his body, the court sent him to Kushtia 250 Bed General Hospital for a medical test.
Dr Tapash Kumar Sarkar, resident medical officer of the hospital said several areas of Ashraf's body had been swollen as he had been beaten. "After giving necessary treatment, we referred him to take treatment in the jail hospital on an emergency basis."
The accused Sub-Inspector Abdur Rahman, also the Investigating Officer of the cattle stealing case denied that he had beaten Ashraf.