The family members of Sumon Sheikh, who died in police custody on Saturday, said that they would not receive the body until they could file a case against the police personnel responsible for his killing.
The family members said that the police concealed the information about his death and conducted his inquest without informing the family members and sent the body to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, where his post-mortem examination was performed.
Sumon, 25, used to work with Masud and Brothers, a private distribution company of Unilever Bangladesh Limited’s water purifier brand Pureit.
He was arrested in a theft case at his West Rampura house on Friday afternoon and found dead at the Hatirjheel police in the capital in police custody.
Referring to CCTV footage, police claimed that the youth committed suicide.
The family members, however, dismissed the claim and said Sumon was tortured to death.
A morgue assistant at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College said the body was kept at the mortuary as none received it after the post-mortem was conducted around 4:30pm on Saturday.
He, however, declined to comment on whether the body bore any marks of injuries.
‘Some quarters are influencing the family not to take the body, but we have started our investigation,’ said HM Azimul Haque, deputy commissioner at Dhaka Metropolitan Police Tejgaon crime division.
Two policemen—Hatirjheel police sub-inspector Hemayet Hossain, who was the duty officer when the man was found dead, and constable Md Zakaria, who was in charge of guarding the arrested detainee—were suspended after the incident, and a three-member probe committee was formed.
Sumon, who hailed from Nawabganj, Dhaka, worked at the distribution office of the purifier brand as a labourer for six years. He left behind his wife and six-year-old son.
His widow, Jannat Akter, could not speak, but his sister-in-law, Ruma Khatun, said they went to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court but did not find a lawyer to move for them.
She said they want to prosecute the police personnel for the death.
The police said that Tk 53 lakh was stolen from the cashbox of the distribution company office on August 15 and a case was filed against unnamed people in connection with the theft.
During the investigation and CCTV footage analysis, police first arrested three staff members of the brand’s distribution office. They are Al-Amin, Sohel Rana, and Anik Hossain.
According to the police officer, police raided Sumon’s house on Friday afternoon and recovered TK 3.13 lakh.
Police made a further raid, taking him with them, and then put him in the lockup around 11:00pm Friday.
Sumon was alone in the lockup and killed himself by hanging himself with his trouser from the rod of the ventilator at around 3:30 am, the police claimed.
A three-member probe committee, led by DMP Tejgaon Industrial Zone’s additional deputy commissioner Hafiz Al Faruque, was asked to submit their report within seven working days.
Hafiz was unwilling to comment when approached.
Sumon’s death came within two days of the death of another man, Siddique Ahmed, who died on Wednesday night at Dhaka Medical College Hospital while in the custody of the detective branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
In a statement on Tuesday, rights group Ain o Salish Kendra said that nine people died in the custody of law enforcement agencies in the first seven months of the year.
Earlier, 21 died in police custody in 2020, 18 each in 2018 and 2019, and seven in 2020.
At a press conference in Dhaka on Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said that she raised her deep concern about serious allegations, including torture and extrajudicial killings, during her four-day visit to Bangladesh.
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