On 13 October 2020, an auto-rickshaw driver named Mamun Mia died in the prison cell of Dhaka’sNawabganj Police Station. This incident comes in the wake of a similar death of a youth named Raihan in the Police Outpost at Bandarbazar, Sylhet. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) is deeply concerned at the number of deaths of people in police custody in recent times. ASK demands a fair and impartial investigation into the death of Mamun Mia.

According to news media reports, on 11 October 2020, the police had recovered the body of an unidentified woman from bushes in Deotala, Nayanshree union, Nawabganj. According to the police, the family of the woman accused Mamun of the murder, and after beating him up, handed him over to the police at Srinagar Station. He was then transferred to the Nawabganj police on 13 October. The police were in the process of transferring him to court. Before that however, they found Mamum hanging from the bars of the window in his cell by the lungi he was wearing. They said that they took him to the hospital immediately, where he was declared dead.

When ASK contacted Mamun’s family about his death in police custody, they complained that although he was detained on the evening of 12 October, the police did not send him to the Court by the afternoon of the next day. The police showed them a CCTV footage from the Nawabganj prison cell, where Mamum can be seen entering the washroom. However, they were not allowed to view the entire footage. At the same time, when family members went to Mitford on the evening of 13 October, they were not allowed to see Mamum’s body either. Due to these reasons, the deceased’s family members do not find the police’s statement about the cause of Mamun’s death, acceptable.

In the last two weeks, four persons have died in police custody in Dhaka’s Paltan and Nawabganj police stations, Police Outpost at Bandarbazar, Sylhet, and Ragpur’s Gangachara station. ASK firmly believes that in order to end such incidents of torture and deaths in custody, it is necessary to break out of the existing culture of impunity and ensure a fair and impartial investigation into every incident. ASKdemands that the roles of those involved in these incidents of torture and custodial deaths be investigated and that legal steps be taken against the perpetrators accordingly.

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