BANGLADESH: Justice denied to another custodial death case

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from ODHIKAR, a Dhaka-based human rights organization that a man was found dead after he was left by Detective officers in hospital on 19 April 2008. The police claimed that Fakir felt ill during police remand and was taken to the hospital. However, the doctor at the hospital found his body covered with signs of torture. As a result his family members strongly believe that he was tortured to the death by the police. Following continuous threats and intimidation for wanting to lodge a complaint regarding Fakir’s death his wife has gone into hiding.

CASE DETAILS:

On 13 April 2008, Fakir informed his wife, Rahela, over cell phone that he was arrested from Maulvibazar by the police. He asked Rahela to arrange for his release otherwise he would be tortured to death by the police.

Rahela went to the Siddhirganj Police Station but the Officer-in-Charge, Mr. Shakhawat Hossain, claimed that they had not arrested Fakir Chan. Yet, Rahela saw Fakir Chan in the police station and told the police that she saw Fakir. The police officials then asked Rahela to bring Fakir some food. Rahela went back to the police station in the following days, from 14 to 15 April, but she was not permitted to see Fakir. On 15 April, Rahela submitted a written application to the Superintendent of Police (SP) seeking the whereabouts of her husband.

On 16 April, Rahela found out that her husband was in the custody and under investigation by the Detective Branch (DB) of Police but she was again, not permitted to see her husband. On the following day, the Siddhirganj police was able to remand Fakir for a further four days by arresting him on an extortion charge and obtaining the order from the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Narayanganj, three days after his initial arrest and detention.

Not being permitted to see her husband, Rahela formally applied in writing to the Superintendent of Police of Narayanganj on 17 April but was still denied of any opportunity to meet him. When Rahela was waiting at the gate of the DB Police office she heard Fakir screaming and asked an officer as to why Fakir’s screaming was being heard, he replied that Fakir was being interrogated. The DB officer then insisted Rahela to go home and she had no option but to do so.

In the evening of 18, April, Rahela saw Sub Inspector (SI) Mr. Babul Akhtar, OC Shakhawat Hossain, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr. Jannatual Hasan and police source Noufen of the Siddhirganj Police Station at the DB Police office. Between 9:30-10 pm , she heard his husband suddenly scream, the officer explained that Fakir was again being interrogated. SI Babul Akhtar told Rahela over the phone that Fakir could be released if a bribe of Taka 50,000 was given.

On 19, April, at 12:10 AM, several DB police officers in plain clothes came to the Narayanganj 200-Bed Hospital by a car, left an unconscious man, (who was later identified as Fakir by the police) and tried to quickly leave. The on-duty medical doctor, Mr. Chowdhury Iqbal Bahr, stopped the persons and asked for their identities; they informed the doctor that they were DB officers. Then, Dr. Bahar found that Fakir was dead and registered as unidentified person as the police officer refused to reveal Fakir Chan’s identity. The plain clothed police officers asked Dr. Bahar to speak to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) or the Superintendent of the Police (SP) of the district regarding the issue. As soon as journalists arrived at the hospital to cover the incident the plain clothed officers left the place.

Dr. Bahar found signs of torture in various parts of the dead body, especially his shins and wrists indicating that the person was hung by the wrists and beaten. His hands and legs had turned blue and his fingernails had been removed, his conclusions were that Fakir had been electrocuted and tortured to death.

Yet, at 3:25am OC Md. Eshan Uddin Choudhury of the DB police along with several police officers arrived at the hospital and asked the doctor to remove the label of “unknown” person and to write down the identity of the body. The doctor refused and Fakir’s body was taken by the Narayanganj Police to Narayanganj General Hospital on 20 April for a post-mortem examination.

Magistrate Mr. Anwarul Islam prepared the Inquest Report of the dead body prior to the post-mortem. After the post-mortem at the Narayanganj General Hospital conducted by Dr. Md. Nazim Uddin Khan the viscera of Fakir was sent to the Chemical Examination Laboratory in Dhaka, which is run by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Bangladesh Police, in order to assert cause of death. However, the magistrate and the medical doctor both refused to disclose the contents of their reports to the human rights defenders.

On the same day, Rahela was informed that his husband had died. Fakir’s dead body was buried under tight police protection. The police allegedly threatened the deceased’s wife Rahela not to lodge any complaint against the alleged police officers regarding the murder of Fakir Chan. Instead the police recorded his death as an “Unnatural Death Case” at the Naryanganj police station. The police allegedly involved a number of local influential persons who were offered money or intimidated in order to refrain from lodging complaint on the death of Fakir. They threatened that such a complaint would bring about further problems to Rehela and her family. A number of police officers also allegedly intimidated Rehela over the phone. Following the continuous intimidation Rahela went on hiding for attempting to lodge a case to investigate her husband’s custodial death.

ASP Jannatual Hasan responded by saying that Fakir tried to escape and fell and injured himself at 9pm, 19 April and was sent to the hospital at 12:00am. He claimed that Fakir was a mugger and was accused in 6 cases and could be taken anywhere for interrogation.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) learned that the police authority formed a probe committee headed by the Additional Superintendent of Police of Narayanganj district Mr. Masud Karim comprising of Assistant Superintendent of Police of the Police Headquarters Mr. Abdullah Al Mamun and Inspector of the Criminal Investigating Department (CID) of Naryanganj district Mr. Nasir Uddin to inquire into the death of Fakir Chan in the DB Police custody. The investigation report, which was submitted to the Police Headquarters on 24 April, held ASP Zannatul Hasan, SI Saiful Islam, SI Mamunur Rashid and SI Babul Akther were responsible for Fakir’s death. The district police office “closed” ASP Zannatul Hasan from his position. Earlier, the district police office “closed” the three other officers in this connection. However, the police authorities did not publish the investigation report in public.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

The death of Fakir Chan in the police custody and the subsequent incidents reveal the picture of the level of arbitrariness, abuse of power and torture-friendly practices and laws as well as systematic denial of justice from the very beginning of the cases of gross human rights violations in Bangladesh.

The arrest of Fakir Chan was arbitrary as the police did not explain the reason of arresting him nor was any explanation given to his family or to the concerned Magistrate as would be in accordance with the law. The Siddhirganj police denied that they arrested Fakir even though the man was in their custody for two days when his wife approached to the police officers. It appears that Fakir’s arrest was not recorded by the police officers until that period. This made Fakir’s arrest and the delay in recording a clear violation of Article 33 (2) of the Constitution of Bangladesh and Section 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1898. This unfortunately is a common feature of Bangladeshi policing.

The traditional practice of assigning the police officers to investigate into the incidents where the police are allegedly responsible for committing the crime has many times proven ineffective and such investigators have been found incompetent and unable to carry out their responsibilities with impartiality. Asking the police officers to investigate the crimes of the police officers has been established as “eye-wash” attempts for validating the crimes of the police; leading to a belief that probe committees are formed in order to cover up the incident and ensuring that there is “no benefit to the victim or their family”.

In the Bangladeshi system post-mortems examinations are conducted by the public hospital doctors, who lack credible training and experience, with the direct assistance of a Dome, who is a member of an underprivileged community. The post-mortems are conducted under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which also controls the police. Post-mortem reports are not accessible to the victims or their relatives for reasons of ‘confidentiality’ unless the issue is placed before a Court. The viscera examination is also done in a laboratory run by the police, which places the material is beyond the access of other interested parties and other experts on the same flied. The police, in practice, pressurize the public hospital doctors to prepare distorted post-mortem reports that favor the police and ultimately denying justice to victims and their families. The confidential process of post-mortem and viscera examination under the Ministry of Home Affairs confines the results out of the realm public knowledge creating space for such evidence to be used to perpetuate forms of malpractice and away from the scrutiny of the general public where there are cases of custodial deaths.

Sense of justice has disappeared from the conscience of the Bangladeshi society. According to the reports, influential people and professionals insisted upon Mrs. Rahela, wife of the victim, not to lodge a complaint against the alleged perpetrators. When continuous intimidation forced her to go into hiding for her security, civil society has barely made any attempt to open up avenues to seek justice for the family. The lawyers, prosecutors and the judiciary seem to be tight-lipped when the police and other law-enforcing agents commit crimes. The policy-makers of the government, including the ministries concerned, survive as mere tools to grant impunity to the perpetrators of the state denying justice to the victims.

SUGGESTED ACTION: 
Please write letters to the relevant authorities to investigate this alleged incident and ensure the perpetrators of this injustice and violence that resulted in the death of a man are punished in accordance with the law. The AHRC has already written separate letters to the Special Rapporteurs on Question of Torture and Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions.

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