The High Court on Monday asked the government to submit a report to the court on Tuesday mentioning the names and ranks of Rapid Action Battalion personnel, who detained and interrogated a female government employee of union-level land office in Naogaon on March 22.
Female office assistant of Chandipur union parishad land office in Nagaon Sadar, Sultana Jasmine, 45, died at the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital on March 24 while being interrogated in custody of the Rapid Action Battalion, according to a newspaper report that was submitted to the High Court by lawyer Manoj Kumar Bhowmick seeking action against the battalion’s members involved in the extra-judicial killing.
The bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Ahmed Sohel issued the verbal directive on suo motu after the lawyer brought the matter to the court.
The court said that it would give further order after getting report from the government.
Sultana Jasmine died at the Intensive Center Unit of the hospital at 10:00am on Friday, two days after she was picked up by the elite force on her way to Chandipur Union Land Office on Wednesday.
Nazmul Haque Montu, maternal uncle of the deceased and also a former councillor of Naogaon municipality, told that members of RAB-5 in a white microbus picked her niece from Muktir Mor area in the municipality at about 10:00am on Wednesday while she was heading towards her office.
‘We had been looking for her in different RAB camps since then but failed to locate her. Later, we came to know that she was undergoing treatment at Naogaon Sadar Hospital,’ he said, adding that they found RAB members at the hospital with her niece who could not talk with them.
Nazmul Haque Montu said that RAB members told them that her niece suffered a stroke. ‘But she was young and in perfect health. I could not understand why she would have a stroke in RAB custody,’ he added.
Nazmul Haque also said that they would take legal action in this regard after petting the report of post-mortem examinations.
RMCH director brigadier general FM Shamim Ahmed told that a team of RAB-5 brought Sultana to the hospital in a critical condition at around 9:20pm on Thursday.
‘The patient was unconscious and was immediately rushed to the neurology ward from where she was transferred to the intensive care unit as her condition continued to deteriorate,’ he said, adding that they performed a CT scan of her and found multiple intracranial bleeds in her head.
‘We found an external bruise on the right side of her head’, the hospital director said, adding that the law enforcers gave a statement to them at the time of the patient’s admission to the hospital that she got injured in her head as she became unconscious and fell on the ground during the interrogation.
Contacted, lieutenant colonel Riaz Shahriar, commanding officer of RAB-5, told on Monday that based on a complaint of financial fraud they detained Sultana Jesmine on Wednesday and started interrogating her in the microbus as they did not have any camp in Naogaon.
He claimed that they detained Jesmine following proper procedures and informed her higher authorities that she was involved in fraudulence.
‘We find several screen shots of transactions of Tk 19 lakh in her mobile phone and her involvement in fraudulence. At one stage of interrogation, she fell sick and started vomiting. Later, we rushed her to Naogaon Sadar Hospital from where she was referred to RMCH where she died of stroke,’ he said.
The RAB official said that the plaintiff had already filed a case against her under the Digital Security Act with Rajpara police Station in Rajshahi city on Thursday.
Ruhul Amin, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Rajpara police station, told that Enamul Haque, the local government director of the Rajshahi divisional commissioner’s office, filed a case against Sultana under the Digital Security Act on Thursday afternoon for syphoning off money from job seekers using a Facebook account.
However, Enamul Haque was not available for his comment despite repeated attempts over the phone.
Rapid Action Battalion director (legal and media wing) Commander Khandaker Al Moin said they had already launched an inquiry in the reported incident, and would submit necessary document to the High Court as the RAB was asked to.
He said that their team was investigating a case filed under Digital Security Act over cheating in the name of a joint secretary.
During the investigation, the RAB spokesman said that their team spotted the lady by her phone at about 10:30am.
While checking her phone, he said the government employee became senseless, and she was rushed to the district hospital in an hour.
She was moved to Rajshahi Medical College where she died on March 24.
The RAB officials said that they found unusual transaction with her account and one Al Amin used to cheat people after the name of the joint secretary on Facebook.
The Rajshahi Medical College issued a death certificate when they mentioned irreversible cardio-respiratory failure due to intra-cerebral hemorrhage.
