On Wednesday September 22, 2010, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court (CMM) Dhaka issued a warrant for the arrest of four police officers, prominent among them former Ramna officer-in-charge Mahbubur Rahman. The officers are accused of torturing Mohammad Abu Abbas Bhuiyan, a Chhatra League leader in their custody.
The initial arrest took place after Professor Humayun Azad was seriously injured during an assault in front of the Bangla Academy on his way back home on February 27, 2004. The next day, police arrested Abbas, the Mass Education Affairs’ secretary at the Bangladesh Chhatra League, for the attack on Professor Azad.
Following his arrest, Abbas was taken to the Ramna police station where four police officers tortured him in order to extract a confession. He was released on bail after 14 days.
In the subsequent probe of the assault, completed on November 15 of 2007, charges were only pressed against Jama’atul Mujahedin Bangladesh members; Abbas’ name was dropped from the investigative documents after the probe.
On March 5, 2008 Abbas filed suit at the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court. In his suit he accused Luftuzzaman Babar, former state minister for home, Mahbubur Rahman and three other police officials of torturing him during his detention.
JusticeMaker Fellow 2010 Shahanur Islam (far right) with the victim outside court
As a result of this suit , Metropolitan Magistrate Mehedi Hasan Talukder ordered the police detective branch (DB ) to review of the initial investigative report. Its findings, released on June 14, 2008 by inspector Abul Kalam Chowdhury, found that Abbas’ claims were ‘false’ as no instance of torture had taken place.
Abbas’ lawyer submitted a petition expressing ‘no confidence’ in the report, submitted on July 23, 2009, leading Metropolitan magistrate Faisal Atiq bin Kader to order further inquiry. The case was handed to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on July 23, 2010. This secondary review, released on August 19, found Abbas’ allegations to be true.
‘The four policemen have committed offences under Section 330, 331 and 34 of the penal code by physically torturing Abbas at the Ramana police station in the period between February 28, 2004 and March 3, 2004 in the name of extracting confession from him,’ the investigation report by CID inspector Ehsan Uddin Chowdhury stated.
The court also asked serving Ramna police officer-in-charge Shibli Noman to report back on execution of the warrants by October 26. The warrants were issued for former officer-in-charge Mahbub, currently on suspension, subinspectors Rezaul Karim, now posted to the Pabna Kotwali station, Naser Ali, employed with the Special Branch (Dhaka city), and sergeant Anwar Hossain, who has been sent to the Jatrabari police force.
Legal assistance was provided to Abbas by the Bangladesh institute of Human Rights (BIHR). He was represented by Advocate Shahanur Islam during the hearing on behalf of BIHR. Shahanur is a winner of an International Bridges to Justice competition, making him a 2010 JusticeMakers fellow.
