The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has not found any evidence of the alleged kidnapping and torture of cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore three days before he was shown as arrested in a case under the Digital Security Act on May 5, 2020.
After almost seven months of investigation, the PBI probe also found that there was no evidence that Kishore was physically or mentally abused while in police custody after his arrest.
Kishore filed a case under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act on March 10, six days after he was released following 10 months of imprisonment in the DSA case. PBI submitted the probe report in the torture case to a Dhaka court on October 17.
Last year, photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol was picked up by unidentified persons and was recovered by law enforcers after 53 days. He went missing a day after Awami League lawmaker from Magura-1 constituency Saifuzzaman Shikhor filed a case against Kajol and 31 others for defamation.
According to Kishore’s case statement, he was picked up from his residence at around 5:45pm on May 2 last year and tortured till May 4. He found himself in a RAB office on May 5.
During March and April in 2020, Kishore had drawn several cartoons criticizing and satirizing the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, posting it on Facebook with the title “Life in the Time of Corona”. He also drew a satirical cartoon mocking the chairman of a private bank, a powerful businessman who reportedly has close ties to the country’s government.
PBI Superintendent of Police Mohammad Mizanur Rahman disclosed the findings of the probe on Wednesday.
“Kishore’s allegations of torture against 16-17 unidentified individuals in plain clothes were not initially proven,” he said.
Court sources said a hearing on the report would be held on November 24.
Probe Report
According to the PBI’s investigation report on Kishore’s torture case, the plaintiff could not provide any information about who abducted the cartoonist via which car on May 2, nor on which damp house or road he was detained for three days.When questioned by PBI, RAB-3 Officer Abu Bakar Siddique, who filed the DSA case against Kishore, said the cartoonist was arrested by RAB from his home on specific charges on May 5, 2020.
The RAB official further said the cartoonist was not physically or mentally tortured while in police custody.
Four investigating officers of the case were questioned by PBI, and none of them could provide any information about Kishore’s kidnapping or torture either, the probe report added.
The report further said Kishore’s brother Ahsan Kabir was questioned as well. He also could not say who picked up his brother on May 2 last year.
However, Ahsan Kabir said that everything in Kishore’s house was destroyed the day of the abduction, while Kishore’s phone and electronics were taken away.
Later, Kishore was blindfolded and was dragged out of the Kakrail house. He was pulled into a vehicle and the unidentified people played a song loudly so that no one could hear Kishore’s screams, Ahsan told PBI, according to the report.
PBI questioned 19 people in the case.
The probe report said that Kishore was informed about its findings, but the cartoonist told the media this was false.
PBI SP Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, the investigator in the case, claimed Kishore was unreachable by phone, so his brother was informed about the probe’s findings.
Kishore’s brother Ahsan said that the PBI had notified him in early November about submitting the report with the court but did not mention the findings.
A medical board of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on March 20 informed the court that it did not find any sign of torture on Kishore's body.