Three custodial deaths in a week

Of course, the police authorities in question have released statements in each of these incidents, claiming that the deaths were due either to injuries suffered prior to the deceased being detained or an unrelated medical condition.

Nevertheless, there remain troubling inconsistencies in the accounts offered by the authorities and one thing that is incontrovertible is that a thorough investigation is called for to get to the bottom of these incidents.

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In the Saiful case, there are inconsistencies between the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) press release and the account given by the Gulshan police authorities who are accused of beating Saiful to death. The Gulshan police maintain they rescued Saiful from a mob after he had shot a security guard and that he died from injuries inflicted by the mob. The DMP press release, however, stated that Saiful had been arrested in a raid and mentioned nothing about a mob beating.

There are similar inconsistencies in the other two incidents. Gulshan police claim that Ripon, a suspected mugger, died of diarrhoea after being in their custody, but the inquest report makes no mention of diarrhoea and points out that Ripon's body bore multiple bruises.

Similarly, the post-mortem conducted on alleged robber Sumon suggests that he had been tortured, and found no evidence to back up the official inquest suggestion that Sumon had died from injuries suffered in a jump from the roof of a six-storey building.

Most disquietingly, in the Sumon case is the allegation of the deceased's father that the Khilgaon police station OC had attempted to extort Tk 1 lakh from him and that Sumon was beaten to death upon non-payment of the bribe.

These incidents are very disturbing. When people die in police custody it always raises a rebuttable presumption of official wrong-doing. This is not helped when there are striking inconsistencies in the official stories or the official stories seem untenable.

Law and order is a problem and we don't expect people to have much sympathy for criminals who prey on society. However, the correct way to deal with the problem is through the rule of law and not to mete out primitive justice in a police station.

We shouldn't rush to judgment but we do need an investigation with teeth to make sure that justice is done and that these allegations of police torture and extortion are not swept under the carpet. Basically, the situation demands a neutral investigation to set the records straight.