Three days after the death of trader Mahbubur Rahman Sujon on July 13, allegedly due to torture while in custody of Mirpur Police Station, members of the same police station yesterday arrested sub-inspector Zahidur Rahman, who is implicated in the deaths earlier this year of three more people.
A Mirpur Police Station team arrested SI Zahidur from Rajarbagh Police Lines yesterday afternoon, immediately after police received a copy of the forensic test report regarding the death of Sujon.
The SI was arrested although no case was filed yet for the murder of Sujon, who was allegedly tortured to death following his refusal to pay Tk1 lakh as a monthly extortion payment to the SI.
Police sources said the same policeman, Zahidur Rahman, killed three others earlier in the year—traders Nurul Islam and Zaved, and Bihari youth Johnny.
“SI Zahidur has been arrested after the forensic test report stated that the trader died from head injuries,” Imtiyaz Ahmed, deputy commissioner of police (DC) for the Mirpur Division, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Unless anybody files another case in connection with the death of Sujon, police will file a case in this connection and the SI will be shown arrested under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure (CrPc)”, the DC said.
The DC admitted that the same SI was also allegedly responsible for the death of three more people while in police custody.
The DC said investigations in connection with those incidents were in process.
A team of police led by SI Zahidur Rahman picked up Sujon and his wife Mamataj Sultana Luchi along with their five-year-old son Mosharraf from his residence in the capital’s Shankar area late at night on July 12 and tortured Sujon to death in the early hours of July 13.
Meanwhile, Professor Habibuzzaman Chowdhury, the chief of the Forensic Department at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), and assistant professor AKM Shafiuzzaman at DMCH in the forensic test report found that Sujon’s death resulted from head injuries.
Following the incident, SI Zahidur Rahman was closed to Rajarbagh Police Lines as part of primary punitive measures against him while a three-member committee was formed to probe the incident.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Habibur Rahman Chaklader Opu, a cousin of the deceased, said a human rights organisation was going to file a case in connection with the death of his cousin.
He also said SI Zahidur had been accused in the murder of three more people earlier under his custody.
“The SI had been used to collecting extortion money from the people by arresting them. He was also used to implicating people in various cases unless the detained persons were not willing to meet his demand for extortion money.”
