Detective Branch to probe tea-seller death

The Detective Branch (DB) will investigate the case filed over the death of tea-seller Babul Matubbor, who died of burn wounds received when policemen allegedly tried to extort money from him.

The case,

filed by the victim’s daughter

, was handed to DB on Monday, said its Deputy Commissioner (media) Md Maruf Hossain Sardar told bdnews24.com.

Matubbor suffered 90 percent burns after policemen reportedly hit the stove in his tea shop at Mirpur’s Shah Ali causing kerosene to splash out on his body on Feb 3. He died in Dhaka Medical College Hospital the next day.

The OC of the Shah Ali Police Station was suspended and five more policemen withdrawn from duty following his death.
 
A probe committee also found police to have committed several irregularities, an official, who was part of the investigation, told bdnews24.com on Sunday.   

The victim’s family claimed the Shah Ali police refused to name the policemen in the case filed within hours of his death. 

“The case was filed in a hurry and the policemen’s names were left out,” said Laboni Akhter, the victim’s daughter had said earlier.

Local ‘drug dealers’ were named in the case.

Police have been insisting that Matubbor was a drug dealer, who injured himself ‘while trying to flee after spotting a police source’ near his shop.  

Police have also been pulled up for taking the wounded man to the police station instead of a hospital. 

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, had, in a statement earlier, berated the police for their ‘heinous acts’ following an outrage over Matubbor’s death, when the law enforcers were already facing criticism for several incidents of brutality.    

Senior Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta demanded that his killers be booked with a month and tried by a speedy trial tribunal.