5 indicted over student's death in 2005

A Mymensingh court yesterday framed charges against five people for their alleged involvement in the killing of a student of Mymensingh Girls' Cadet College in 2005.

Judge Mohammad Amir Uddin of Mymensingh District and Sessions Judge's Court framed charges against the then adjutant Maj Nazmul Haque, the college's associate professor Abul Hossain, the then sergeant Nawsher-uz-Zaman, the then security guard Hena Begum, and the then deputy adjutant general Maj Monir Ahmed Chowdhury of the Army Headquarters.

Except for Maj Monir, the four other accused were present in the court yesterday.

Contacted, Wazedul Islam, a public prosecutor, said the court fixed March 24 for recording testimonies.

Sharmila Shaharin Pollen, 18, a second-year student and daughter of retired Air Force officer Abul Bashar Patwary of Chandpur, was found dead in the bathroom of her dormitory “Shanti House” on the morning of February 11, 2005.

As Pollen's roommates and classmates could not find her after breakfast, they started looking for her and found the door of a bathroom locked from the inside, police said. They knocked at the door repeatedly, but did not get any response.

Later, a maid of the hostel entered the bathroom scaling a wall and found Pollen hanging from the shower pipe, police had then said, quoting college sources.

The college authorities rushed Pollen to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Mymensingh where doctors declared her dead.

Police recovered the body from the CMH and sent it to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) for autopsy.

According to the charge-framing order, Pollen was tortured and made unconscious with a blunt object inside the college on that day (February 11, 2015). Then she was strangled.

Before that, to kill Pollen in a planned way, all security guards, except for Hena Begum, were locked in an office room. Then Pollen's body was hung with a scarf from a shower pipe in a bathroom to make it look like a suicide.

At a press conference at Mymensingh Press Club yesterday evening, the victim's father alleged that he was first informed by Maj Nazmul about the incident around 12:30pm that day.

Bashar said he started for Mymensingh from Dhaka and reached there around 4:00pm.

“I reached the MMCH and found Pollen's body on the hospital's corridor around 5:00pm.”

He claimed that he requested the army officers to allow him to take the body to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for autopsy, but Maj Nazmul and Maj Monir did not allow it.

An unnatural death case was lodged with Kotwali Police Station on February 11, 2005.

“I tried to file a murder case with Kotwali Police Station but police did not accept it.”

On February 19, 2005, Bashar lodged a case with Cognisance Court No-1. The court ordered the police to investigate the incident. Police submitted a final report terming the incident a “suicide”, he said.

“I did not accept the findings of the police report and the court directed the CID [Criminal Investigation Department] to investigate the incident. But the CID too submitted a report similar to the one submitted by the police.”

Later, Bashar sought a judicial enquiry with the same court and the court ordered judicial magistrate Jahangir Hossain to probe. After Jahangir's transfer, senior judicial magistrate Al Amin continued the investigation and submitted a report to the court on May 22, 2013, accusing the five people.

The court accepted the judicial enquiry report in 2013. The hearing on charge framing was held on January 14, 2016.

“I want justice for the killing of my daughter,” said the bereaved father.

Lawyers Nurul Haque, Biswanath Pal, Abdus Sattar pleaded for the plaintiff, while AHM Khalequzzaman stood for the accused.