Cops beat DSCC official in Jatrabari

One week into the alleged torture of a Bangladesh Bank official by cops, on duty policemen beat up an inspector of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) in Jatrabari area in Dhaka allegedly for no reason early today.

Bikash Chandra Das, 40, left his Doyaganj residence on his official motorcycle around 4:00am to oversee the road cleaning works like any other usual day, Saraswati, wife of the victim, told The Daily Star.

Quoting some cleaners of DSCC, who were on the spot, Saraswati said a police at a check post in Mir Hajirbagh area asked Bikash to stop.

“When Bikash stopped a bit ahead of the check post, Sub-Inspector Arshad Hossain Akash hit him on his neck from behind. Later, Akash and other policemen present there started kicking him with their boots and beating him mercilessly with their rifles. At one stage, Akash hit Bikash with a revolver on his nose,” Saraswati quoted the cleaners as saying.

One of the cleaners informed Saraswati about the incident over phone, and she reached the spot around 5:00am.

“Reaching there I found my husband lying on a van like a dead man. The policemen did not send him to a hospital. Rather they were trying to hide the true incident,” Saraswati told The Daily Star.

“My husband was bleeding from his nose and the policemen left him like this for around one hour. Though Bikash informed the policemen his identity as a government official, they showed no mercy.”

When Saraswati put pressure on the policemen, they allowed her to take the victim to a hospital.

Bikash was initially being treated at ward No. 201 of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Saraswati informed.

Later in the evening, Bikash was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Labaid hospital in Dhanmondi.

Contacted, Officer-in-Charge Abani Shankar Kor of Jatrabari Police Station told The Daily Star that the incident was a misunderstanding.

“SI Akash’s team was in plain clothes. As a result, the victim might have thought that they were hijackers.”

However, the culprit, whoever he is, will be punished, the OC added.

Meanwhile, police formed a two member committee led by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Crimes and Ops) Mainul Haque to investigate the incident, said Syed Nurul Islam, deputy commissioner of Wari Division Police.

Action would be taken on basis of the probe committee’s report in this regard, Nurul Islam also said.

The committee has been asked to submit its report by three working days, he added.