"You are lying," Justice AHM Shamshuddin Chowdhury Manik told Helal Uddin, officer-in-charge (OC) of Khilgaon Police Station, when he was giving statement on the arrest of Abdul Quader.
"Tell us the whole truth. Otherwise, we will send you to the prison on Nazimuddin Road without your uniform," the judge kept reminding the OC throughout the hearing.
The High Court (HC) bench of Justice Manik and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore came down heavily on the Khilgaon OC as it found inconsistencies in his statement about the arrest of DU student Abdul Quader and filing of cases against him.
While OC Helal was giving his statement, Quader was sitting behind him on a wheelchair with his left leg bandaged heavily from the thigh down.
OC Helal made several deep wounds on the leg with a cleaver (chapatti) on July 16 while Quader was in police custody, the victim told the court before the OC was called in the dock for his statement.
Quader also showed the court the injury marks on his body, especially on the back and arms, made by police around 1:30am on the day of his arrest.
While he said he had been arrested from Segunbagicha, OC Helal kept claiming that they picked him up from near Khilgaon Police Outpost on July 16 around 3:30am.
In his defence, the OC said at 3:09:14am Quader made a call over his cellphone using the Khilgaon mobile phone tower.
At this statement, the judges became very suspicious and said that according to Quader's statement, if he was picked up around 1:30am and then taken to Khilgaon Police Station, there is a chance that police made the call to prove that Quader was in Khilgaon area around 3:00am and that he was arrested around 3:30am from that area.
The judges also pointed out that police recorded the cases against Quader eight hours after the arrest. They were also not satisfied with the explanation the OC came up with for the delay in case filing.
According to the judges, the time might have been spent fabricating evidence to justify Quader's arrest.
The 26-year-old master's student of biochemistry and molecular biology wept his eyes dry as he narrated how several plainclothes police brutally beat him up.
"When I told them that I was a student of Dhaka University, they started beating me up even fiercely calling me a robber," Quader told the court.
On the night of his arrest, Quader was returning to his dormitory Fazlul Haque Hall from his cousin's house at Holy Family Doctors' Quarters in Eskaton. He was coming on foot as no transportation was available at that time.
Just when Quader was about to pass the Anti-Corruption Commission premises in Segunbagicha, he noticed a man running towards him from behind. Guessing that the man could be chasing someone else he stood his ground to stay away from any commotion.
"Later I noticed a gun tucked in the man's trousers. He came to me and hit me with his gun and soon his other colleagues joined in the mayhem," said Quader, adding that they were policemen.
Thereafter the policemen took him to an unknown youth who was also being beaten up by several other policemen. They asked the youth if he knew Quader and the youth said that he did so.
"But I told the policemen that if the youth could tell my name they can shoot me on the very spot," Quader told the court, adding, "He did not know my name."
Later, the police personnel took Quader to Khilgaon Police Station on a car. Quader showed the court how his nails turned black from the brutal torture by police.
"I was barely conscious after the beating," he said, "at the police station, the duty officer asked me about my accomplices. I told him that there was none and that I was not out on the street to rob anyone".
When the court asked OC Helal to give his statement on the incident and go through the content of the cases, he gave accounts that were totally different from that of Quader's.
Helal claimed that police did not beat Quader up. It was a mob in Khilgaon who beat him when six persons, including Quader, were trying to flee from a private car being intercepted by four plainclothes patrol police.
Four of them escaped while police managed to get their hands on two -- Quader and one Mamun -- after the mob beating, the OC said.
The judges then asked the OC how many people gathered on the spot at 3:30 in the morning to beat up six robbers.
The OC said he did not know but the duty officer might.
The judges then asked him whether he asked the on-duty policemen about the number of people in the mob. Helal Uddin said he did not.
The judges then enquired whether Khilgaon police arrested anyone from the mob. The OC again answered in negative.
"Don't you think those who beat up the two youth committed a crime?" Justice Manik asked the OC. Helal Uddin responded in affirmation.
Asked why no one from the mob was arrested, OC Helal said police could not arrest anyone as the people fled the scene.
When the judge asked about the registration number, colour, the make and the name of the owner of the car that the six youths allegedly tried to escape from, the OC could only give the registration number and the colour of the vehicle. However, he had no clue about the car's model and its owner.
The OC claimed that the car was stolen from Mohammadpur on July 14 and a case was filed in the same day in this regard and that the car was being used by the six youths for robbery.
Justice Tagore then became suspicious that Khilgaon police had used the evidence of the carjacking case filed with Mohammadpur police in the alleged robbery case in Khilgaon.
Justice Manik then warned the OC not to lie about the incident.
OC Helal claimed that he was telling the truth.
"Which houses and addresses did they try to rob that night?" asked Justice Manik.
OC Helal said they did not rob any specific house.
"Then how did you identify them as robbers," asked the court.
The OC said Mamun, the other youth who was allegedly arrested with Quader, told police that they tried to rob a rickshaw puller but did not find much money.
At that time, the packed courtroom erupted with laughter with lawyers, DU students, journalists and Quader's family members joining in.
Asked about the eight-hour delay in filing the case, OC Helal said police were trying to find the other four members of the alleged gang of robbers.
"Do you think it is alright to chase around with two injured suspects without giving them any medical attention?" the court asked.
The OC replied that police gave them first aid.
"But you are no doctors," the court asked, "Isn't it your duty to send injured suspects to doctors?"
Ruling party lawmaker Abdul Matin Khasru, who stood for Quader, at one point, raised the question that the stab wounds in Quader's leg were from a cleaver while mobs never carry such sharp weapons with them.
Justice Manik agreed with Khasru.
The judges also expressed disappointment, as the OC did not bring all the relevant case documents with him including the first information record (FIR) of the case filed for carrying sharp weapons.
"Why did the police torture him [Quader] so badly? We need to stop such brutality," said Khasru.
The HC came forward to deal with the torture on Quader following yesterday's report on The Daily Star titled "Police out to 'frame' youth". The report was read out loud several times during the court proceedings.
At one point, the court asked OC Helal about his statement in the report.
The OC claimed that a part of report where he said, "… They made the arrest after another detainee had named Quader as one of their accomplices," was not his statement.
Justice Manik then asked two correspondents of The Daily Star who were present in the court to appear before the judges. The court enquired the reporters about the OC's claim.
One of the correspondents told the court that the OC was not misquoted and the statement published in the newspaper was whatever OC Helal told over the phone.
At that time Additional Attorney General MK Rahman asked OC Helal whether he spoke to The Daily Star correspondent on Wednesday. OC Helal responded in the affirmative.
Source : The Daily Star
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