Torture of student in custody: Court asks PBI to investigate further

A Chattogram court today ordered the Police Investigation Bureau to re-investigate the case filed against two policemen in connection with the custodial torture of a student in 2023.

They are Nazim Uddin, the then senior police officer of Panchleish, and Abdul Aziz, deputy inspector of the same police station.

Additional Chief City Magistrate Sarkar Hasan Shahriar passed the order after the victim Syed Mohammad Mustaqeem filed a no-confidence petition expressing displeasure with the investigation report submitted earlier by the CID in the torture case.

Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation Secretary General Zia Ahsan Habib said, “The CID submitted its final report in the case in 2023 after an investigation, but we on behalf of the victim filed a petition of no confidence in the CID report in the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, but the court dismissed the appeal.

After yet another appeal in the Chattogram Sessions Court, the court finally passed the re-investigation order for PBI today,” he added.

On February 20, 2023, Syed Mohammad Mustaqeem filed a complaint against Chittagong City Sessions Judge Begum Zebunnes.

According to the complaint, he was arrested by OC Nazim during a protest program against the increase in the cost of kidney dialysis at Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on January 10 that year. Mustakim claimed that he was brutally tortured after his arrest. He said that he was beaten at the police station.

Taking cognizance of the allegations, the court asked the Special Superintendent of Police, Chattogrom CID, to register the complaint as a case against the OC and SI and submit an investigation report to the court.