BANGLADESH: Suspicious death of a man in police custody

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man was found dead during Batiaghata police custody on 7 March 2008 in Khulna district, Bangladesh. Police claimed that he committed suicide. However, the dead body showed several injuries. Police conducted a self-inquest on this incident in violations of the Criminal Procedure Code even though the Magistrate has legal responsibility for it. It is alleged that the police have attempted to fabricate evidence in order to define the reason of the death as a suicide and cover up the alleged torture.

CASE DETAILS:

On March 7, 2008, at 2am, a group of civilians caught Mr. Abul Hossain at the Zero Point Crossing of the Khulna-Satkhira highway (under the Batiaghata police station of the Khulna district). At the time, Mr. Hossain allegedly possessed 10 bottles of phensydil, an illegal narcotic made from cough syrup that is common in Bangladesh. As they believed Mr. Hossain to be in possession of such narcotics, the locals handed him over to the Batiaghata police to be legally processed.

Sub Inspector (SI) Mr. Salek, who was the acting Officer-in-Charge (OC) in the absence of the OC, has stated that he was informed by mobile telephone about this information. He states that he ordered a detective branch police officer and Mr. Ansar Ali to bring Hossain to the ferry pier of the police station.

The police received Hossain at the ferry pier of the police station. Sub Inspector (SI) Mr. Saban Ali was the On-Duty-Officer with Constable Mr. Siddiqur Rahman as the sentry in the police station. Meanwhile, Mr. Ansar Ali, a police source, lodged a complaint against Hossain regarding his alleged drug trading. The Batiaghata police recorded the complaint as case number 4, on March 7, under section 25 of the Special Powers Act of 1974.

The following morning, March 8, the police declared that Hossain had committed suicide by hanging himself by a torn piece of quilt from the ventilator in the washroom inside police custody.

According to the SI Salek, he states that he “found the hanging dead body of the accused in the toilet that evening. I recovered the dead body, and took it to the local hospital where the on duty doctors declared Hossain dead.” He further claims, “I conducted the ‘Inquest Report’; and later, post-mortem is conducted followed by recording of an ‘Unnatural Death’ (UD)” with the police station.

The OC Inspector Delowar Ahammed stated, in this regard, that “he was on leave and was reported this incident later. A three member inquiry committee was formed headed by Mr. Abdur Rouf, an Additional Superintendent of Police of Khulna district police office, which had been investigating into the alleged suicide.”

However, according to Mr. Abul Hassan, Hossain’s brother, neither he nor the group of journalists who accompanied him were allowed to see the body of Hossain. What he could see upon arriving on the scene was that “the body was taken on a rickshaw van, it was bleeding from the mouth.” Though he states that he was not allowed near the van, he claims to have been able to see from a far that “the body had signs of wounds all around and Hossain had severe injury in his head”.

Mr. Kawsar, Hossain’s brother-in-law rightly questions the plausibility of an inmate being able to hang themselves by a piece of torn fabric from a ventilator in the washroom. He alleges that the police authorities fabricated the story to cover up their torture and murder of Hossain. Mr. Kawsar also reports that, after the post-mortem “when the police handed over the dead body to us, we took it to the Khulna Press Club to show the injuries to the journalists.”

Further casting doubt on the ‘official’ account of events is the testimony of a rickshaw-van-puller of the Batiaghata bazaar area, Mr. Motleb. He told the local human rights groups that while pulling his van on the afternoon of March 7, he saw Mr. Ansar Ali, commonly known to be a police source in the area, taking a person on “another van beating”.

Dr. Sushanta Roy at the Batiaghata Upazilla Health Complex, who examined and declared Hossain dead, has stated that the police informed him that the person committed suicide by hanging himself. He did not try to inquire more into the case.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

The most disconcerting aspect of this case is the fact that the entire investigation into Hossain’s death has been conducted internally within the police department. SI Mr. Salek admits to have been responsible for ‘finding’ the dead body and bringing it to the hospital, as well as for conducting the ‘Inquest Report’.  Moreover, the inquiry team was headed by an Additional Superintendent of Police at Khulna district police office, who was directly involved in investigating the alleged suicide, implicating a lack of credibility particularly in light of past investigations by the police against police officers that have been biased and unfair.

Importantly, that this whole incident has been investigated internally within the police department is in violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure which states that when any person dies while in the custody of the police, the nearest Magistrate is empowered to conduct it’s in own inquiry into the matter. It gives rise to the question of why the police ignored the magistrate for conducting the inquest report, which is a very important piece of evidence for subsequent investigations relating to any case of suspicious death.

The Section 176 (1) of the Code of the Criminal Procedure says that “When any person dies while in the custody of the police, the nearest Magistrate empowered to hold inquests shall, and, in any other case mentioned in section 174, clauses (a), (b) and (c) of sub-section (1), any Magistrate so empowered may hold an inquiry into the cause of death instead of, or in addition to, the investigation held by the police officer, and if he does so, he shall have all the powers in conducing it which he would have in holding an inquiry into an offence. The Magistrate holding such an inquiry shall record the evidence taken by him in connection therewith in any of the manners hereinafter prescribed according to the circumstances of the case”.

It is suspicious that the Batiaghata police attempted to determine the death of Mr. Abul Hossain as a ‘suicide’ for which they exercised their unlawful alleged authority in section 174 (1) of the Code of the Criminal Procedure, which authorizes the OC of a police station to conduct the inquest of a death although there was a third person responsible for the alleged death other than the police.

The Section 174 (1) of the same code says that “The Officer-in-Charge of a police station or some other police officer specially empowered by the Government in that behalf, on receiving information that a person–(a) Has committed suicide, or (b) Has been killed by another, or by an animal, or by machinery or by an accident, or (c) Has died under circumstances raising a reasonable suspicion that some other person has committed an offence–shall immediately give intimation thereof to the nearest Magistrate empowered to hold inquests, and unless otherwise directed by any rule prescribed by the Government, or by any general or special order, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, the District Magistrate or Sub-divisional Magistrate, shall proceed to the place where the body of such deceased person is, and there, in the presence of two or more respectable inhabitants of the neighbourhood, shall make an investigation, and draw up a report of the apparent cause of death, describing such wounds, fractures, bruises and other marks of injury as may be found on the body, and stating in what manner, or by what weapon or instrument (if any), such marks appear to have been inflicted.

Provided that, unless the Government otherwise directs, it shall not be necessary under the sub-section, in any case where the death or any person has been caused by enemy action, to make any investigation or to draw up any report of to send any intimation to a Magistrate empowered to hold inquests.”

Even section 174 (1) also directs the police to inform the nearest Magistrate to hold inquests, which seems to be a deliberate attempt of the Batiaghata police to destroy the evidence partially or completely so that the alleged police officers can escape the prosecution for their involvement in the alleged death.

The AHRC urges the authorities to launch a thorough investigation by a body independent of police authorities in the area to explore the facts of the case. 

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the relevant authorities to investigate into this alleged incident of custodial death of Mr. Abul Hossain and provide adequate protection and compensation to his family for losses they have suffered.

Please be informed that the AHRC has written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Question of Torture and Extrajudicial Killings and Summary Execution calling for the intervention in this case.

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