SI Akbar, 5 others charged with murder of Raihan in custody
A Sylhet court on Monday charged suspended police sub-inspector Akbar Hossain Bhuiyan and five others with murder of Raihan Ahmed in custody of Bandar Bazar outpost in Sylhet.
Sylhet Metropolitan session judge Md Abdur Rahim also posted for May 10 the commencement of the formal trial with the recording of testimonies of prosecution witnesses.
Five suspended police personnel— Bandar Bazar police outpost in-charge Akbar, sub-inspector Hasan Uddin, assistant sub-inspector Ashek-e Elahi and constables Titu Chandra Das and Harunur Rashid—were present in the courtroom during the framing of the charges against them.
The rest accused, Abdullah Al Mamun, a resident of Companiganj upazila in the district, claimed to be reporter of an online news postal, was charged in his absence as he has been in hiding since the filing of the case for torturing Raihan, 34, to death in police custody, said public prosecutor Nawshad Ahmed.
Earlier on May 5, 2021, Police Bureau of Investigation inspector Awlad Hossain, also the investigation officer in the case, submitted the charge sheet to the chief metropolitan magistrate court.
The Sylhet Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court accepted the charge sheet on September 30, 2021 and transferred the case to the Metropolitan Session Judge Court on March 8, 2022 for trial.
Raihan, compounder of a doctor’s chamber at Sylhet Stadium Market and hailed from Hawlader Para at Akhalia area in the city, was tortured to death in custody at Bandar Bazar police outpost on October 11, 2020 reportedly after the police had failed to realise Tk 10,000 from his family in bribe.
Raihan’s wife Tahmina Akter Tanni filed the case with the Kotwali police station on October 12, 2020.
Police Bureau of Investigation Sylhet office superintendent Khaled-Uz Zaman at a briefing on May 5, 2021 said that Raihan had attacked one Saidul Sheikh and his companion Roni in the city’s Kastaghar Sweeper Colony at about 1:45am on October 11, 2020.
Raihan also had snatched away Tk 9,700 from Saidul, who made a verbal complaint to the Bandar Bazar police outpost, Khaled said.
Police personnel took Raihan to the Bandar Bazar outpost after detaining him at the sweeper colony and the prime suspect Akbar and his subordinates tortured him with sticks, the police officer said.
He said that Raihan was taken to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital at about 7:50am when the doctors on duty declared him dead.
As part of their effort to hide the crime, the accused had claimed that Raihan died in a mass beating while he was snatching away money of a pedestrian at Kastoghar area, he said at the briefing.
The investigation officer of the case stated in the charge sheet that the investigation found direct involvement of suspended sub-inspector Akbar and ASI Ashek, constables Titu and Harunur in torturing Raihan to death at the police outpost.
He also mentioned that suspended SI Hasan Uddin with the help of Abdullah Al Mamun, former reporter of an online news portal, had removed the video footages from the CCTV of the Bandar Bazar police outpost as an effort to hide the evidence of torturing Raihan.
News Courtesy:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/168404/si-akbar-5-others-charged-with-murder-of-raihan-in-custody
