Police have arrested 10 staff members of Mind Aid Hospital over their alleged involvement in the death of Barisal Metropolitan Police (BMP) Senior ASP Anisul Karim Shipon.
The hospital staff were arrested on Tuesday and produced in court the same day.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohamamd Shahidul Islam placed them on a 7-day remand after OC Mohammad Faruk Mollah of Adabar police station, also investigating officer of the case, produced them before the court with a 10-day remand prayer.
The arrestees are Mind Aid’s Marketing Manager Arif Mahmud Joy, 35, Coordinator Redwan Sabbir, 23, Kitchen Chef Md Masud Ali, 37, Pharmacist Md Tanvir Hasan, 18, Ward Boys Zobayer Hossain, 19, Tanim Molla, 20, Sanjeeb Chowdhury, 20, Ashim Chandra Pal, 24, Liton Ahammad, 18, and Md Saiful Islam Palash, 35.
The accused were identified through CCTV footage of the hospital.
They were arrested after the father of the deceased, Faijuddin Ahmed, filed a murder case over the incident with Adabar police station on Monday night.
ASP Anisul Karim Shipon was a resident of Kapasia upazila in Gazipura and a father of one.
He was laid to rest at the central graveyard of Gazipur city after a namaz-e-janaza at Bhawal Rajbari field on Tuesday morning.
“This is clearly a murder. Anisul was at first admitted to a government mental hospital but later shifted to the private clinic,” said Mohammad Harun Ur Rashid, deputy commissioner of Tejgaon Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, in a news briefing on Tuesday.
Police believe “middlemen” were involved in shifting the official to the private hospital, said the deputy commissioner.
DC Rashid also said: “They [arrestees] have confessed to their offence during primary interrogation. They regularly persuade patients from different hospitals illegally to come to their hospital.”
“Investigation is going on in this case,” he added.
The DC claimed the hospital authorities could not show any valid permit or document from the Department of Health or any permission from the Department of Narcotics Control needed to run the hospital.
The CCTV footage
Police said Anisul's family admitted him to the hospital around 11:30am on Monday, and the authorities handed him over to the family again in an unconscious state after some time.
Anisul was later taken to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and Hospital, where he was declared dead by the on-duty physician.
Also read: Barisal police official beaten to death at mental health hospital in Dhaka
CCTV footage from the hospital showed the police official being dragged into a small room and pushed on the ground.
It also showed three employees climbing on his back, two others holding his legs and two more tying his hands.
Anisul was attacked and lost consciousness. Water was splashed on his face, but he did not respond.
After some time, two women wearing aprons entered the room and one was seen doing compressions of his chest.
‘My brother was killed’
Mohammad Rezaul Karim Sabuj, brother of the victim, said Anisul had been posted at Barisal Metropolitan Police (BMP).
On Monday morning, he was brought to Dhaka National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital (NIMH) from Barishal around 6:30am as he has been suffering from mental illness. From there, he was taken to Adabar's Mind Aid Hospital.
"My brother was killed by the staff of Mind Aid Hospital," Sabuj added.
“My brother was not very communicative. Even though he endured mental pressure, he would tell nobody,” he said, adding that he had been going through mental difficulties for the past few days.
A police official said Anisul, an official of BCS 31st batch, had been mentally troubled as he did not get promotion to additional superintendent of police though many officers of his batch and even of the 33rd BCS batch got promoted.
Police close Mind Aid Hospital
Police have closed down Mind Aid Hospital after their license was revoked.
Health Department officials visited the hospital in the morning and said the hospital authorities had applied for psychiatry treatment permission. The government authorities are now deciding against approval.
Department of Narcotic Control assistant director Mehedi Hasan said the hospital was a licensed rehabilitation centre.
“We permitted the license over a year ago, but are now taking steps to revoke it permanently,” said Mehedi.
Mind Aid Hospital coordinator Imran Khan earlier said that Anisul was being violent with the hospital staff during admission and was taken to a room so he could be calmed.
When asked whether the policeman was tortured, Imran said that he was not there at the time and a post-mortem would clarify the reasons behind the death.
Meanwhile, students of Jahangirnagar University staged protests in the campus and in front of the Mind Aid Hospital, demanding justice for the incident.
