Police allegedly beat to death 25-year-old Asadul in Miapara village of Kalamridha Union in Faridpur’s Bhanga upazila yesterday.
In protest of this killing, locals brought out a procession with the dead body on the Bhanga-Mawa highway, demanding the alleged policemen be brought to justice. They also uprooted a tree and blocked the road.
Sources say, SI Rasel and SI Mukul Khan from Bhanga jail raided the village yesterday and arrested several youth suspected of being involved in a "welcome-tune party," and demanded a large sum of money from them.
The welcome-tune party is known locally as a group of people who disguise themselves as mobile operators and make scam phone calls to local users, telling them they have won the lottery and asking the so-called winners to forward a sum of money to a certain phone number.
Asadul was arrested by police on being involved in a group that carries out these scams, and was asked to pay a heavy bribe.
According to sources, when Asadul failed to give them the money, they thrashed him, injuring him severely. At one point, they strangled him with an iron chain, causing his immediate death.
Nazrul Islam Hawladar, a local villager, said: “SI Rasel and Mukul demanded Tk3lakh from Asadul. Despite our repeated and desperate requests to let him go, they severely beat him with an iron chain in front of us. Then, as we watched, he fell to his death.”
Later, angry locals chased the police, who allegedly dropped the corpse on a haystack, and fled the scene.
Family members and local villagers then uprooted a tree and blocked the Bhanga-Mawa highway in protest, causing long tailbacks on both sides of the road.
Upon receiving this information, Bhanga Upazilla Chairman Md Shahadat Hossain and Bhanga Upazilla Nirbahi Officer Md Alamgir Hossain went to the scene to investigate the situation.
Shahadat Hossain said: “Bhanga jail police often harass innocent youth and take bribes from them.” He told the angry locals to protest if police officers without uniform come to the locality and arrest someone in the future. He also demanded exemplary punishment for members of the police force involved.
“For a while now, the police have been involved in a trade of extorting money from innocent youth through bribes,” former union parishad chairman Nurul Huq Mia said, further demanding exemplary punishment for the accused policemen.
Officer-in-Charge of Bhanga police station Nazmul Islam and Superintendent of Faridpur police Jamil Hasan could not be reached for comments.
