Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a young businessman named Shamim Reza was tortured to death by police officers of Sonargaon police station in Narayanganj distirct. The police, on 14 May 2013, illegally arrested Shamim without any warrant of arrest issued by Court. In violation of Bangladesh’s constitutional provision, the victim was arbitrarily detained for a week in the official residence of a police inspector of the Sonargaon police. The police tortured Shamim in brutal ways for seven days and forced his family to pay BDT 250,000 (USD $ 3,215) as bribe for releasing him from their custody. Prior to his death from custodial torture, the police forced detainee to confess to a Magistrate in relation to a murder case. The police authorities formed two ‘eye wash’ probe committees to cover up the crimes of their officers, in the name of inquiring into the custodial death. So far, none of the alleged perpetrators have been formally brought to the book. Apart from formal complaints filed in courts, the victim’s brother has sought justice in a People’s Tribunal against Torture hosted by local rights organization Odhikar on 26 June 2013.
CASE NARRATIVE:
On 14 May 2013, the Sonargaon police of Narayanganj district arrested Mr. Shamim Reza from Protaper Chor area under the jurisdiction of the same police station. The police made this arrest early in the morning, at around 5:30 a.m. on 14 May, without any valid warrant of arrest issued by any court. At the time of arrest, the police ransacked the house of Shamim in the name of a ‘raid’, although they did not have a proper search warrant for the house.
On 26 June 2013, Mr. Iqbal Hossain participated in a People’s Tribunal against Torture organized by Bangladeshi human rights organization Odhikar in Dhaka. Iqbal described how the police inflicted torture upon his brother Mr. Shamim Reza, who was illegally arrested, arbitrarily detained, and tortured to death in Sonargaon police station of Narayanganj district.
A translation of Iqbal’s statement in the People’s Tribunal against Torture reads as follows:
“My name is Iqbal Hossain. I am the elder brother of Shamim Reza, who died due to police torture. We are residents of Protaper Chor in the Pirojpur Union of Sonargaon Upazila under the Narayanganj district. My father is Haji Alauddin. Shamim is the third of four children. Shamim passed the SSC exam in 2002 and HSC in 2004 from Shilpanagari High School and Sonargaon Degree College respectively. Then he completed his Bachelors in Business Administration, majoring in Management from Doniya University College in 2008. In 2010 Shamim Reza married (Ms. Sabikun Nahar) Tasin and has a one-and-a-half year old son. For the last 3 years, Shamim was working in the family business of dredging and trading in stone and sand.
On 14 May 2013 at 6 a.m., policemen led by Arup Torofdar, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Investigation at the Sonargaon Police Station took Shamim with them, saying that they required some information in a murder case. Right after Shamim was taken, I ran to the police station. The police did not let me see Shamim in person. Three days later the OC said to me, “Today (On 16 May 2013) you can see Shamim in the evening.” After I reached the police station the OC told me to return at night. On the fourth day, at around 8 p.m., I got to finally see Shamim in the station. Shamim broke into tears upon seeing me and stated that the police were beating him to death. He said that he did not have the strength to continue living anymore and asked me to pray for him. I saw wounds all over his body. He was hardly able to move his hands and feet. He was not able to stand and said that his urine was bloody. I was shocked and on the verge of a mental breakdown myself. Shamim told me that in order to get him out, the police required a bribe. I went to talk to the OC Arup Torofdar. At first he demanded BDT 10 lac [One lac is equal to One Hundred Thousand]; however, after bargaining, he agreed on BDT 5 lac. The OC said that BDT 5 lac would guarantee that Shamim would not be beaten anymore. However, he also said that if evidence is found of Shamim’s involvement in the murder; full payment of BDT 10 lac was to be made. On the 19 May 2013, at around 11 p.m., I offered BDT 2.5 lac to the OC and asked him to release Shamim. However, he said until full payment was made, he would not do so.
I was not able to manage the rest of the money. On 20 May 2013, Shamim was taken to the Court in Narayanganj. The OC, who did not disclose that Shamim was sent to Court, called and demanded money. I was informed about the matter and, when I questioned the OC, he replied that Shamim had not been taken yet, but would be sent to the Court if no payment was made.
On 20 May 2013 at 5 p.m., Shamim was taken to Victoria Hospital. At 8 p.m., my relatives and I went to the hospital. At 9 p.m., two policemen of Narayanganj Court had taken Shamim to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in an ambulance. Due to a traffic jam, I reached the hospital at 2 a.m. and found Shamim in ward no. 218.
At around 8:25 a.m. on 22 May 2013, Shamim died in the hospital.
Magistrate Raziya Khatun prepared the inquest report. I was present. After completion of the report, I signed it. After the completion of the post- mortem examination, I received Shamim’s body in a coffin at 5 p.m. At 8 p.m. I reached Pirojpur. At 9 p.m. the Namaz-e-Janaza (burial ceremony) was arranged.
I organised a rally with neighbours, carrying Shamim’s coffin and demanding the arrest of those who tortured and killed Shamim. The rally became so big that the highway was blocked in front of the Meghna Toll plaza. At around 10 p.m., Shamim’s body was buried in the nearby Jhoutola graveyard.”
Eyewitnesses and inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Protaper Chor village have claimed, when interviewed by human rights defenders, that they heard unusual noise early in the morning of 14 May that woke them up. When they tried to figure out the source of the noise, they saw police in the house of Shamim. Within a short period of time, they saw that the police taking away Shamim Reza, handcuffed, in a vehicle.
Regarding Shamim’s family’s allegation that Shamim was not detained at the Police Station from the time of his arrest, human rights defenders have found that he was detained for six days in the official quarter of Inspector Arup Torofdar, at the first floor of a two-storey building within the premises of the Sonargaon police station. This is a grave infringement of Article 33 of the Constitution.
During arbitrary detention in police custody, the police forced Shamim to make a confessional statement before a Magistrate, under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. The forwarding letter submitted to the Court by the police claims that Shamim ‘agreed’ to ‘confess’ his involvement in murder case on board while he was being brought to the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Narayanganj district on 20 May.
The Court, on 20 May, ordered the police to provide Shamim with medical treatment, observing his critical physical condition. It was then that he was admitted to Victoria Hospital in Narayanganj. On the same evening, as Shamim’s condition deteriorated, he was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) in the early morning of 21 May through the prison authorities. On 22 May, Shamim died in DMCH while under treatment. On the same date, the police filed an unnatural death case at the Shahbagh Police Station in Dhaka for the purpose of arranging a postmortem, which was conducted by the teachers of the Forensic Medicine Department of the Dhaka Medical College (DMC) at its morgue followed by an Inquest Report prepared by a police officer of the Shahbagh police.
On 23 May, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Narayanganj district formed a three-member probe committee headed by Additional Superintendent of Police (Crimes) Mr. S.M. Ashrafuzzaman, and comprising Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) for Circle-B of the district Mr. Uttam Prashad Bashak and Police Inspector (Court) Mr. Asaduzzaman. The Committee was asked to submit its probe report within three days.
The relatives of the victim allege that, at least two members of this probe committee were allegedly involved in the process of facilitating torture and suppressing the truth related to the entire incident that lead to Shamim’s custodial death. The local people held protests against the decision of the SP of Narayanganj, who allegedly formed the probe committee to cover up the murder. The SP, Mr. Syed Nurul Islam, was cited in the national media that he had said on 23 May, “We cannot respond to everything that relatives claim happened. We will go by what our documents say.” The SP told the journalists that he himself had talked to Shamim at his office on 20 May and he was not ill at that time. He claimed that Shamim described how the Sonargaon murder was planned. The SP defended his claim by saying that “If Shamim was not physically and mentally fit, the magistrate would not have recorded his statement”.
Human Rights Defenders ascertain that the Narayanganj SP said so despite the fact the police did not maintain any accessible record of arresting and detaining Shamim Reza since 14 May. Instead, the police falsely claimed in their official documents that they arrested Shamim on 19 May in the evening. Such claims are proven false as there were reports published, at least, in two national daily newspapers on 15 May, the following day, regarding Shamim’s arrest and detention, which contain information of Shamim’s arrest, in alleged connection to the murder of four persons in Sonargaon, and quote police officers who claim that their investigation had unearthed a clue to the murder.
Meanwhile, a large number of people protested against the police brutality since Shamim’s dead body was brought back to Sonargaon on the night of 22 May. The protestors demanded punishment of the perpetrators – police officers – for murdering Shamim in custody. They blockaded the Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Sonargaon so that their demands would be met. The protest affected traffic flow between the two biggest cities of the country, and the administration almost lost control over the situation. Then, on 24 May, the Inspector General of the Bangladesh Police formed another probe committee headed by an Additional Deputy Inspector General (ADIG) of the Dhaka Range of the Bangladesh Police Mr. Khandkar Golam Farukh. Two more officers were also included in the probe committee comprising Mr. Subrata Kumar Halder, Additional Superintendent of Police (Crimes) of Narsingdi district, and Mr. Sazzadur Rahman, Additional Superintendent of Police (Administration) of Narayanganj district. This committee was asked to submit its probe report to the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) within 48 hours.
On 25 May, the probe committee headed by the ADIG visited Sonargaon area as part of their investigation into the custodial murder of Shamim Reza. The following day, the members of the probe committee responded to journalists in a media briefing, where they confirmed that the relatives of Shamim visited the police station and hospital in search of Shamim. They disclosed that the alleged officers were withdrawn from their duties for the sake of proper investigation into the alleged four murder case. If any police officers were to be found guilty in the alleged torture to death of Shamim, due process of law would be initiated against them.
The probe report of the ADIG headed Committee has never been released in public. However, the police authorities later informed the media that the Committee had recommended the initiation of departmental proceedings against Atiqur Rahman Khan, Inspector of Police and Officer-in-Charge (Administration); withdraw Arup Torofdar, Inspector of Police and OC (Investigation), to Police Headquarters; withdraw Poltu Ghosh, Sub Inspector of Police, to the district Police Line; and transfer Uttam Prashad Basak, Assistant Superintendent of Police (Circle-B), elsewhere as ‘punishment’. The Detective Branch (DB) of Police, in particular its Inspector Mr. Shahidur Rahman, was assigned to investigate the case regarding the murder of four persons.
Human rights defenders, who have observed this case closely and have experience regarding the behavior of police authorities, claim that the police are still trying to cover up the custodial murder of Shamim Reza. According to the defenders, the probe committees were formed as an ‘eye wash’ so that the police could tame the aggrieved relatives of Shamim and the agitated people of Sonargaon area and maintain ‘law and order. There is hardly any possibility of getting justice in the case of Shamim’s custodial murder.
On 28 May, Shamim’s father Mr. Alauddin Mian filed a writ petition with a Division Bench of the High Court seeking arrest of the alleged perpetrators within 24 hours for his son’s murder in police custody. The judges of the Division Bench, Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Khan, refused to hear the writ petition, which would be moved to another Bench according to the petitioner’s lawyer Md. Eunus Ali Akand.
On 13 June, Ms. Sabikun Nahar, widow of Shamim Reza and mother of the couple’s two-and-a-half year old child, filed a petition of complaint with the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Narayanganj. Four police officers namely Atiqur Rahman Khan, Inspector of Police and Officer-in-Charge (Administration), Arup Torofdar, Inspector of Police and OC (Investigation), Poltu Ghosh, Sub Inspector, and Uttam Prashad Basak, ASP (Circle-B), were accused of the custodial murder of Shamim in the petition. The complainant has also described in detail how her husband was illegally arrested, arbitrarily detained for a week in police custody, and how the family was forced to pay a bribe of BDT 250,000 for the release of Shamim from police torture. The Magistrate of the Court (Gha Area), Ms. Afroza Begum has ordered that the complaint be taken into cognizance and that an investigation report be submitted along with the report regarding the Unnatural Death complaint registered with the Shahbagh police station of the city of Dhaka before 31 July 2013.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On 19 April 2013 Jhauchar Union Parishad [a local government unit] Chairman Mr. Rafiqul Islam’s second wife, Mrs. Shamima Akhter, her brother Masud Rana, and two domestic-helps, named Rekha Akhter and Moni Akhter were found with their throat slit over a family conflict and property dispute at their home in Jhauchar. In connection with this incident, police arrested Shahadat, the son of Rafiqul’s first wife, the Chairman’s younger brother Habibur Rahman, brother-in-law Rajib, body guard Badshah Mian and three others. Shahadat, one of the detained suspects, had personal friendship with Shamim Reza, a young man having a business of bricks, cement, sand, and other construction materials. The police suspected Shamim Reza in the sensational four murder case, although there had been no evidence against Shamim Reza regarding his connection with the crime.
On 14 May 2013 at around 5 a.m., a team led by Inspector Arup Torofdar, who is the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Investigation of Sonargaon Police Station, arrested Shamim, despite the fact that Shamim’s name was not in the list of accused of the First Information Report (FIR) regarding the four persons’ murder and there was no warrant of arrest issued by any Court of Law against him. Police Sub Inspector Poltu Ghosh was also present at the scene of arrest. At the time of arrest, members of Shamim’s family asked for reasons of his arrest, while the police replied that they would interrogate Shamim over the recent murder of four persons in the area.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
The First Information Report (FIR) registered regarding the murder of four persons did not accuse Shamim Reza as a suspect. The police arrested him allegedly for extracting higher amount of bribes by using torture, as Shamim was known as a young businessman. It is one of the conventional practices of the Bangladeshi police, who routinely cover up their failure to investigate serious crimes including murder cases. The police arrested Shamim without any legality. Their intention for arresting Shamim as part of conducting the investigation of the four persons’ murder case remains highly unbelievable, as they did not make any record regarding Shamim’s arrest on 14 May 2013. The deliberate action of detaining persons without any recorded documents once again exposes the pattern of abuse of police power in the name of criminal investigation.
Any person, who is arrested, must be produced before a court within 24 hours according to Article 33 (2) of the Constitution of Bangladesh and Section 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. The Court is authorized to decide on the next course of action regarding an arrestee. Moreover, torture has been used as a tool to obtain money.
Law enforcers can do whatever they want in the ongoing culture of impunity that prevails in Bangladesh, and given the power vested in them by the State, which they exercise in a repressive way. Four officials were liable of creating fear and committing torture in order to commit extortion. Section 388 of Penal Code, 1860 specifically covers putting a person in fear of accusation of offence in order to commit extortion, which reads:
“Whoever commits extortion by putting any person in fear of an accusation against that person or any other, of having committed or attempted to commit any offence punishable with death, or with [imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, or of having attempted to induce any other person to commit such offence, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine; and, if the offence be one punishable under section 377 of this Code, may be punished with imprisonment for life.”
The accused police officers are liable for the custodial death and as well as for committing extortion by creating fear among the victim’s relatives. The police forced Shamim Reza to give a confessional statement, which is a clear violation of Article 35 (4) of the Constitution.
The Constitutional provision reads:
“No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.”
In general, the police deny registration of criminal cases against their own officers for the crimes of torture. They constantly threaten the relatives of victims of torture or extrajudicial murders. Today, it is a general knowledge in Bangladesh that registering a complaint with a police station against police personnel is impossible as the police themselves control the complaint mechanism in the country. As a result, justice seekers go to the courts as a last resort.
It becomes a joke when criminal investigations into cases of custodial murder are conducted by police officers well-known for covering-up the crimes of their colleagues. For example, in this case, first a probe committee was formed by the Superintendent of Police of Narayanganj district, comprising one of the alleged perpetrators. Secondly, following tremendous public protest, the Inspector General of Police formed another probe committee headed by an Additional Deputy Inspector General of Police. This probe committee did not hold the perpetrators responsible for torture and did not recommended prosecution of police officers for torturing a man to death. Instead, the ADIG’s committee suggested withdrawing four of the perpetrators from their duties and asking for a ‘departmental proceedings’ against only one of the perpetrators. Departmental proceedings are not the due process of law when the police officers have committed criminal offences. It shows how senior police authorities manipulate the law for their own gains and make Bangladesh’s criminal justice system a useless tool. The perpetrators’ bosses, who are also direct beneficiaries of the corrupt and torturous policing system, systematically save their colleagues so that the business of bribery continues unabated.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the authorities of Bangladesh asking them to form a judicial probe commission comprising at least one person from an active human rights organization so that credible investigation becomes possible. The findings of the judicial probe commission must be released in public. The alleged perpetrators must be held for murdering Shamim Reza and prosecuted before a court of law for committing crimes of torture, extortion, threatening relatives, and forcing the victim to be a witness against himself.
Please note that the Asian Human Rights Commission has written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Working Group on Arbitrary Arrest and Detention requesting interventions in this case.
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SAMPLE LETTER
Dear …………….,
BANGLADESH: In weeklong arbitrary detention, Sonargaon police torture young businessman to death for bribery
Name of victim: Mr. Shamim Reza, aged 26, son of Mr. Alauddin Mian, businessman by profession, resident of Protaper Chor village, under the jurisdiction of Sonargaon police station in Narayanganj district
Names of alleged perpetrators:
1. Atiqur Rahman Khan, Inspector of Police & Officer-in-Charge (Administration), departmental proceedings
2. Arup Torofdar, Inspector of Police, withdrawn to Police Headquarters
3. Poltu Ghosh, Sub Inspector of Police, withdrawn to District police line
All the above are attached to Sonargaon Police Station of Narayanganj district
4. Uttam Prashad Basak, Assistant Superintendent of Police (Circle-B), attached to Narayanganj District Police Office, stationed in Sonargaon, punishment transfer order
Date of incident: 14 May – 22 May, 2013
Place of incident: House of Police Inspector Atiqur Rahman Khan, adjacent to Sonargaon Police Station
I am writing to voice my grave concern regarding one more custodial death due to torture by police in Bangladesh. This time the Sonargaon police of Narayanganj district illegally arrested a young businessman named Shamim Reza, who was detained in the official residence of police inspector Arup Torofdar, where Shamim was brutally tortured for a week and his relatives forced to pay BDT 250,000 (USD $ 3,215) as bribe for releasing him from custody. It is highly regrettable that the police authorities formed two ‘eye wash’ probe committees to cover up the crimes of the officers in the name of inquiring into the custodial death. None of the alleged perpetrators have formally brought to the book so far.
On 14 May 2013, the Sonargaon police of Narayanganj district arrested Mr. Shamim Reza from Protaper Chor area under the jurisdiction of the same police station. The police made this arrest early in the morning, at around 5:30 a.m. on 14th May, without any valid warrant of arrest issued by any court. At the time of arrest, the police ransacked the house of Shamim in the name of a ‘raid’, although they did not have a proper search warrant for the house.
According to Mr. Iqbal Hossain, brother of Mr. Shamim Reza, Shamim had been taking care of the family’s family business of dredging and trading in stone and sand for the last 3 years. Mr. Hossain described the happenings in this way:
“On 14 May 2013 at 6:00 am, policemen led by Arup Torofdar, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Investigation at the Sonargaon Police Station took Shamim with them saying that they required some information on a murder case. Right after Shamim was taken, I ran to the police station. The police did not let him see Shamim in person. Three days later the OC said to me, ‘Today (On 16 May 2013) you can see Shamim in the evening.’ After Iqbal reached the police station the OC told me to return at night. On the fourth day, at around 8:00 pm, I got to finally see Shamim in the station. Shamim broke into tears upon seeing me and stated that the police were beating him to death. He said that he did not have the strength to continue living anymore and asked me to pray for him. I saw wounds all over Shamim’s body. He was hardly able to move his hands and feet. He was not able to stand and said that his urine was bloody. I was shocked and on the verge of a mental break myself. Shamim told me that in order to get him out, the police required a bribe. I went to talk to the OC Arup Torofdar. At first he demanded BDT 10 lac [One lac is equal to One Hundred Thousand] from me; however after bargaining, the police officer agreed on BDT 5 lac. The OC said that BDT 5 lac would guarantee that Shamim would not be beaten anymore. However, he also said that if evidence is found of Shamim’s involvement in the murder; full payment of BDT 10 lac was to be made. On 19 May 2013 at around 11 o’ clock at night, I offered BDT 2.5 lac to the OC and he asked the police officer to release Shamim. However he said that until full payment was made, he would not do so.
I was not able to manage the rest of the money. On 20 May 2013, Shamim was taken to the Court in Naraynganj. The OC, did not disclose that Shamim was sent to Court, called and demanded money. I was informed of the matter and when he questioned the OC the police officer replied that Shamin had not been taken yet, but would be sent to the Court if no payment was made. On 20 May 2013 at 5 p.m., Shamim was taken to Victoria Hospital. At 8 p.m., my relatives and I went to the hospital. At 9 p.m., two policemen of Narayanganj Court had taken Shamim to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in an ambulance. Due to a traffic jam, I reached the hospital at 2 a.m. and found Shamim in ward no. 218. At around 8:25 a.m. on 22 May 2013, Shamim died in the hospital. Magistrate Raziya Khatun prepared the inquest report. Iqbal was present. After completion of the report, I signed it. After the completion of the post- mortem examination, he received Shamim’s body in a coffin at 5 p.m. At 8 p.m. Iqbal reached Pirojpur. At 9 p.m., the Namaz-e-Janaza (burial ceremony) was arranged.”
Eyewitnesses and inhabitants of the neighbourhood in Protaper Chor village have claimed – when interviewed by human rights defenders – they heard unusual noises early in the morning on May 14 that woke them up. When they tried to figure out the source of the noise they saw police in the house of Shamim. Within a short period of time, they saw that the police were taking away Shamim Raza, handcuffed, in a vehicle.
Regarding Shamim’s family’s allegation that Shamim was not detained at the police station since his arrest, the human rights defenders found that he was detained for six days in the official quarter of Inspector Arup Torofder at the first floor of a two-storey building within the premises of the Sonargaon police station. This is a grave infringement of Article 33 of the Constitution.
During the arbitrary detention in police custody, the police forced Shamim to make a confessional statement before a Magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. The forwarding letter submitted to the Court by the police claims that Shamim ‘agreed’ to ‘confess’ his involvement in a murder case while he was being brought to the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Narayanganj district on 20 May.
I am aware that the Court, on 20 May, ordered the police to provide Shamim with medical treatment observing his critical physical condition. He was admitted to Victoria Hospital in Narayanganj. On the same evening, as Shamim’s condition deteriorated he was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) in the early morning on 21 May through the prison authorities. On 22 May, Shamim died in the DMCH while under treatment. On the same date, police filed an unnatural death case at the Shahbagh Police Station in Dhaka for the purpose of arranging a post-mortem, which was conducted by teachers of the Forensic Medicine Department of the Dhaka Medical College (DMC) at its morgue, followed by an Inquest Report prepared by a police officer of the Shahbagh police.
On 23 May, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Narayanganj district formed a three-member probe committee headed by Additional Superintendent of Police (Crimes) Mr. S.M. Ashrafuzzaman, comprising Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) for Circle-B of the district Mr. Uttam Prashad Bashak and Police Inspector (Court) Mr. Asaduzzaman. The Committee was asked to submit its probe report within three days.
I am informed that at least two members of this probe committee were allegedly involved in the process of facilitating torture and suppressing the truth related to the entire incident that lead Shamim’s custodial death. The local people held protests against the decision of the SP of Narayanganj, who allegedly formed the probe committee to cover up the murder. The SP, Mr. Syed Nurul Islam was cited in the national media that he had said on 23 May, “We cannot respond to everything that relatives claim happened. We will go by what our documents say.” The SP told the journalists that he himself had talked to Shamim at his office on May 20 and he was not ill at that time. He claimed that Shamim described how the Sonargaon murder was planned. The SP defended his claim by saying that “if Shamim was not physically and mentally fit, the magistrate would not have recorded his statement”.
Human Rights Defenders ascertain that the Narayanganj SP said so despite the fact the police did not maintain any accessible record of arresting and detaining Shamim Reza since 14 May. Instead, the police falsely claim in their official documents that Shamim was arrested on 19 May in the evening. Such claims are proven false as there were reports published, at least, in two national daily newspapers on 15 May, the following day, regarding Shamim’s arrest and detention, which contain information of Shamim’s arrest, allegedly in connection with the murder of four persons in Sonargaon, quoting the police officers who reportedly claimed that their investigations had unearthed the clues to the murder.
I am aware that a large number of people protested against police brutality when Shamim’s dead body was brought back to Sonargaon on the night of 22 May. The protestors demanded punishment of the perpetrator police officers for murdering Shamim in custody. They blockaded the Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Sonargaon so the authorities would meet their demands. The protest affected the traffic operational system between the two biggest cities of the country and the administration almost lost control over the situation. Then, on 24 May, the Inspector General of the Bangladesh Police formed another probe committee headed by an Additional Deputy Inspector General (ADIG) of the Dhaka Range of the Bangladesh Police Mr. Khandkar Golam Farukh. Two more officers were also included in the probe committee comprising Mr. Subrata Kumar Halder, Additional Superintendent of Police (Crimes) of Narsingdi district, and Mr. Sazzadur Rahman, Additional Superintendent of Police (Administration) of Narayanganj district. This committee was asked to submit its probe report the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) within 48 hours.
I have been informed that on 25 May, the probe committee headed by the ADIG visited Sonargaon area as part of its investigation into the custodial murder of Shamim Reza. The following day, members of the probe committee responded to journalists in a media briefing, where they confirmed that the relatives of Shamim visited the police station and hospital in search of Shamim. Primarily, they disclosed, the alleged officers had been withdrawn from their duties for the sake of proper investigation into the alleged four murder case, and that if any police officer was found guilty in the alleged torture to death of Shamim, due process of law would be initiated against him.
The probe report of the ADIG headed Committee has never been released in public. However, the police authorities later informed the media that the Probe Committee had recommended the initiation of departmental proceedings against Atiqur Rahman Khan, Inspector of Police and Officer-in-Charge (Administration); withdrawing Arup Torofdar, Inspector of Police and OC (Investigation), to Police Headquarters; withdrawing Poltu Ghosh, Sub Inspector of Police, to the district Police Line; and transferring Uttam Prashad Basak, Assistant Superintendent of Police (Circle-B), elsewhere as ‘punishment’. I question the credibility of the probe conducted by the police officers who always protect the crimes of their colleagues.
I have learned from Human Rights Defenders, who have observed this case closely and have experience regarding the behavior of police authorities, that the police are still trying to cover up the custodial murder of Shamim Reza. According to the defenders, the probe committees were formed as an ‘eye wash’ so that the police could tame the aggrieved relatives of Shamim and the agitated people of Sonargaon area in order to maintain ‘law and order. There is hardly any possibility of getting justice in the case of Shamim’s custodial murder.
I know that, on 28 May, Shamim’s father, Mr. Alauddin Mian, filed a writ petition with a Division Bench of the High Court seeking arrest of the alleged perpetrators within 24 hours for his son’s murder in police custody. The judges of the Division Bench, Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Khan, refused to hear the writ petition, which would be moved to another Bench according to the petitioner’s lawyer, Md. Eunus Ali Akand. It’s very sad to hear that the relatives of the victims of custodial murder have to go to the Supreme Court for seeking directives on arrest of perpetrators in the law-enforcement agencies. It reflects the serious weakness of the criminal justice system of the country and the level of helplessness of the citizens.
I am informed that, on 13 June, Ms. Sabikun Nahar, widow of Shamim Reza and mother of the couple’s two-and-a-half year old child, filed a petition complain with the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court of Narayanganj. Four police officers namely Atiqur Rahman Khan, Inspector of Police and Officer-in-Charge (Administration), Arup Torofdar, Inspector of Police and OC (Investigation), Poltu Ghosh, Sub Inspector, and Uttam Prashad Basak, ASP (Circle-B), have been accused of the custodial murder of Shamin in the petition. The complainant has described in detail how her husband was illegally arrested, arbitrarily detained for a week in police custody, and how the family was forced to pay bribes of BDT 250,000 for the release of Shamim from police torture. The Magistrate of the Court (Gha Area), Ms. Afroza Begum ordered that the complaint be taken into cognizance and that an investigation report be submitted along with the report regarding the Unnatural Death complaint registered with the Shahbagh police station of the city of Dhaka before 31 July 2013.
I am aware of the background of the incident. On 19 April 2013, Jhauchar Union Parishad [a local government unit] Chairman Mr. Rafiqul Islam’s second wife Mrs. Shamima Akhter, her brother Masud Rana, and two domestic-helps, named Rekha Akhter and Moni Akhter, were found throat slit over a family conflict and property dispute at their home in Jhauchar. In connection with this incident, police arrested Shahadat, the son of Rafiqul’s first wife, the Chairman’s younger brother Habibur Rahman, brother-in-law Rajib, body guard Badshah Mian and three others. Shahadat, one of the detained suspects, had personal friendship with Shamim Reza, a young man having a business of bricks, cement, sand, and other construction materials. The police suspected Shamim Reza in the sensational four murder case although there had been no evidence against Shamim Reza regarding his connection to the crime.
Eye-witnesses accounts hold that, on 14 May 2013 at around 5 a.m., a team led by Inspector Arup Torofdar, who is the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Investigation of the Sonargaon Police Station arrested Shamim despite the fact that Shamim’s name was not in the list of accused of the First Information Report (FIR) regarding the four persons’ murder and there was no warrant of arrest issued by any Court of Law against him. Police Sub Inspector Poltu Ghosh was also present in the scene of arresting Shamim Reza. At the time of arrest, the members of Shamim’s family asked the reasons of his arrest while the police replied that they would interrogate Shamim over the recent murder of four persons in the area.
I know that the First Information Report (FIR) registered regarding the murder of four persons did not hold Shamim Reza as a suspect. The police arrested him allegedly for extracting higher amount of bribes by using torture, as Shamim is known as a young businessman. It is one of the conventional practices used by Bangladeshi police, who routinely cover up their failure to investigate serious crimes including murder cases. The Police arrested Shamim without any legality. Their intention of arresting Shamim as part of conducting the investigation of the four persons’ murder case remains highly unbelievable as they did not make any record regarding Shamim’s arrest on 14 May 2013. The deliberate action of detaining persons without any recorded documents once again exposes the pattern of abusing police power in the name of criminal investigation.
I am aware that any person, who is arrested, must be produced before a court within 24 hours, according to Article 33 (2) of the Constitution of Bangladesh and Section 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. The Court is authorized to decide on the next course of actions regarding an arrestee.
Law enforcers can do whatever they want in the ongoing culture of impunity in Bangladesh and given the power vested in them by the State which they exercise in a repressive way. Four officials appear liable for putting a person in fear of accusation of offence in order to commit extortion. Section 388 of Penal Code, 1860 covers putting a person in fear of accusation of offence in order to commit extortion:
“Whoever commits extortion by putting any person in fear of an accusation against that person or any other, of having committed or attempted to commit any offence punishable with death, or with [imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, or of having attempted to induce any other person to commit such offence, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine; and, if the offence be one punishable under section 377 of this Code, may be punished with imprisonment for life.”
I observe that the accused police officers are liable for the custodial death and as well as for committing extortion by creating fear among the victim’s relatives. The police forced Shamim Reza to give confessional statement, which is a clear violation of Article 35 (4) of the Constitution.
The Constitutional provision reads:
“No person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself.”
I know that, generally, the police also deny registration of criminal cases against their own officers for the crimes of torture. They constantly threaten the relatives of the victims of torture or extrajudicial murders. Today, it is a general knowledge in Bangladesh that registering a complaint with a police station against police personnel is impossible as the police control the complaint mechanisms in the country. As a result, justice seekers have to go to the courts as a last resort.
It becomes a joke when criminal investigations of cases involving custodial murders are also conducted by the police officers who cover up the crimes of their colleagues. For example, first, a probe committee was formed by the Superintendent of Police of Narayanganj district comprising one of the alleged perpetrators. Second, following tremendous public protest, the Inspector General of Police formed another probe committee headed by an Additional Deputy Inspector General of Police. This probe committee did not hold the perpetrators responsible for torture or recommended that police officers be prosecuted for torturing a man to death. Instead, the ADIG’s committee suggested withdrawing four of the perpetrators from their duties and asking for a ‘departmental proceedings’ against only one of them. Departmental proceedings are not due process of law when the police officers commit criminal offences. It shows how the senior police authorities manipulate the law for their own gains and make Bangladesh’s criminal justice system a useless tool. The perpetrators’ bosses, who are also direct beneficiaries of the corrupt and torturous policing system systematically save their colleagues so that the business of bribery continues unabated.
I urge to the authorities of Bangladesh asking them to form a judicial probe commission comprising at least one person from an active human rights organization so that credible investigation becomes possible. The findings of the judicial probe commission must be released in public. The alleged perpetrators must be held for murdering Shamim Reza and prosecuted before a court of law for committing the crimes of torture, extortion, threatening the relatives, and forcing the victim to be a witness against himself.
I hope that you will take prompt action regarding this matter.
Yours sincerely,
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mrs. Sheikh Hasina
Prime Minister
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Office of the Prime Minister
Tejgaon, Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 811 3244 / 3243 / 1015 / 1490
Tel: +880 2 882 816 079 / 988 8677
E-mail: pm@pmo.gov.bd or ps1topm@pmo.gov.bd or psecy@pmo.gov.bd
2. Mr. Md. Muzammel Hossain
Chief Justice
Supreme Court of Bangladesh
Supreme Court Building
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 956 5058 /+880 2 7161344
Tel: +880 2 956 2792
E-mail: chief@bdcom.com or supremec@bdcom.com
3. Barrister Shafique Ahmed
Minister
Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs
Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 7160627 (O)
Fax: +880 2 7168557 (O)
Email: info@minlaw.gov.bd
4. Mr. Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir MP
Minister
Ministry of Home Affairs
Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 7169069 (O)
Fax: +880 2 7160405, 880 2 7164788 (O)
E-mail: minister@mha.gov.bd
5. Mr. Mahbubey Alam
Attorney General of Bangladesh
Office of the Attorney General
Supreme Court Annex Building
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 956 1568
Tel: +880 2 956 2868
6. Prof. Mizanur Rahman
Chairman
National Human Rights Commission
10th Floor, Gulfeshan Plaza
8, Journalist Selina Parvin Road
Mogbazar, Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88 02 8331492
Fax: +88 02 8333219
E-mail: nhrc.bd@gmail.com
7. Mr. Hassan Mahmood Khandker
Inspector General of Police (IGP)
Bangladesh Police
Police Headquarters’
Fulbaria, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 956 3362 / 956 3363
Tel: +880 2 956 2054 / +880 2 717 6451 / +880 2 717 6677
E-mail: ig@police.gov.bd
8. Mr. SM Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman
Deputy Inspector General of Police for the Dhaka Range
Office of the DIG of Dhaka Range
Bangladesh Police
Shegunbagicha, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 8353926/9356233
Fax: +880 2 8315838
Email: digdhaka@police.gov.bd
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
