Rickshaw puller Mohammad Saju injured in a gunshot by a police member on Sunday night cannot leave the hospital for failing to pay the treatment bill.
Mirpur police on Monday said that they would bear all the costs and primarily gave Tk5,000 for his treatment. But when contacted yesterday, the OC of Mirpur police, Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan, refrained from making any comment on this matter.
“The authorities [of Galaxy Hospital] have asked me twice to pay the dues. I do not have the money and cannot go home,” Saju said yesterday, adding that no police officer had contacted him since Monday.
“The doctors are ready to discharge me, but the hospital authorities are demanding that the dues be paid,” he said.
No senior official of the hospital was available for comments.
Saju was gossiping with several others at the local Soinik League office at Block 8 of Kallyanpur Porabosti slum on Sunday night when three police members showed up and a constable shot his leg without warning.
Mirpur police claimed that Assistant Sub-Inspector Harun had gone to the spot after receiving a complaint that several men were gambling there.
“We nabbed three men but they started calling for help and behaving aggressively. At that time, a bullet was shot accidentally from constable Rizvi Miah’s gun,” the OC said on Monday.
Saju said that his cousin took him to three hospitals but they were harassed by the authorities. Later, a Mirpur police station officer found him and took him to Galaxy Hospital.
Asked about filling a case over the matter, the rickshaw puller yesterday said that it was impossible to run a case against a police member. “If I do so, they will make me an accused in any murder case. Rather I will pass the rest of my life as a physically disabled person.”
Meanwhile, Senior ASP Abdul Awal visited Saju at the hospital at 3:30pm yesterday as the DMP commissioner had asked him to submit a report on the matter.
