National Human Rights Commission chief wants trial for policemen who let Rajan’s killers escape

The policemen suspended for negligence in handling Sylhet teen Samiul Alam Rajan’s murder should be tried for criminal offences, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman says.

“The commission is closely observing the trial process of Rajan’s murder,” he told reporters at Sylhet’s Kumargaon. 

Rahman visited the boy’s family on Tuesday at their house in Kumargaon’s Badeali.

Thirteen-year-old Rajan, accused of stealing a rickshaw-van, was beaten to death with a metal rod. 

The video of torturing the boy was posted on a social networking site by the killers and it caused nationwide outrage.

Rajan’s family alleges that Jalalabad police Inspector Alamgir Hossain and sub-inspector Aminul Islam helped the prime suspects Muhith Alam and Kamrul Islam escape.

Inspector Hossain has been already closed, while sub-Inspectors Zakir Hossain and Aminul Islam have been suspended for negligence.

Police have arrested 13 people over the murder, including Alam, his wife Lipi Begum, and eyewitnesses Azmat Ullah and Firoz Ali. Seven of them have reportedly confessed in court. 

Islam, an expatriate Bangladeshi in Saudi Arabia, had fled to Jeddah after the incident but was arrested there.

The government said he would be brought back to stand trial.

NHRC chief Rahman said police’s ‘rude behaviour’ with Rajan’s father when he wanted to file a case was not ‘desirable’.

On the matter of bringing Islam back, he said for that to happen, the government’s ‘goodwill’ was needed. “We want to see the assurance given by the high-ups of bringing him back becoming a reality.”

He called for an early start of the trial.