Allegations and counter-allegations and filing of two cases with conflicting charges shrouded the circumstances surrounding the death of Mohammad Ripon, 22.

Family members and relatives of Ripon said his nephew was first beaten by Shamsul Haque Durrani, editor of the daily Nawroz, when his bicycle hit Durrani on Kamrangirchar embankment.

Ripon along with two friends -- Omar Faruq and Ohid alias Maruf -- went to the spot immediately.

Following an altercation with them, Durrani called his brother Idris and some others from nearby area. They attacked Ripon and his friends, the family members said.

"I saw Durrani and his brother Idris hitting Ripon with iron rod and stick till he collapsed on the ground unconscious," Ripon's brother-in-law Sharier Alam Tipu alleged.

On information, a sub-inspector at Kamrangirchar police station went there and took Ripon to Shikder Medical College Hospital nearby.

Durrani and his men also beat up Ripon's friends and handed them over to Kamrangichar police, accusing them of attacking him. Ripon was later shifted to the DMCH where he died yesterday morning, Tipu said .

"Hired men of Durrani beat Ripon to death," a maternal uncle of the victim told newsmen at the DMCH morgue yesterday.

Ripon's elder brother filed a murder case with Kamrangirchar Police Station yesterday noon, accusing Durrani and two others.

On the other hand, Durrani filed a case with Kamrangirchar Police Station on Thursday accusing six people including Ripon and his two friends of ransacking a pharmacy owned by his brother.

He told this correspondent the gang earlier attacked his house as he tried to resist extortion by its members in the area. Failing to get him at the house, they raided his brother's pharmacy, he added.

Locals chased the gang and a 'young man' was injured in mob beating. He later died in hospital, Durrani said.

A tense situation was prevailing in the area following the death of Ripon.