Nusrat murder: Panel recommends disciplinary action against Feni SP, ex-Sonagazi police chief

A police headquarters probe panel has recommend disciplinary action against Feni superintendent of police and ex-Sonagazi police chief in connection with the murder of Nusrat Jahan Rafi, a madrasa student.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 1 May 2019, 07:09 AM
Updated : 1 May 2019, 10:50 AM

The five-member panel found the police officials guilty of negligence in the case.

The report was submitted on Tuesday to the inspector general of police, according to Deputy Inspector General SM Ruhul Amin, the head of the probe panel.

The panel prepared the report visiting the scene twice in Feni and recording the statements from 41 people.

It found four police officials, SP SM Jahangir Alam Sarkar, former Sonagazi Police Station chief Moazzem Hossain, SI Md Iqbal and Additional District Magistrate PKM Enamul Karim, guilty of negligence.

Questions were raised on how the incident took place in the exam centre and the perpetrators fled when the police were present and why the police took three days to arrest the suspects.

Nusrat had been tricked onto the roof of the madrasa where the perpetrators set fire on her on Apr 6 for not withdrawing the sexual assault case against Siraj-Ud-Doula, principal in Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa in Sonagazi.

Nusrat’s brother Mahmudul Hasan Noman filed a case on the incident on Apr 8 naming eight persons, including the principal as the main accused.

Nusrat died on Apr 10, five days after the attack, in a Dhaka hospital turning the attempted murder case into a murder case.

OC Moazzem was transferred from Sonagazi Police Station to Armed Police Battalion on Apr 10 and the Police Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation.

Moazzem allegedly tried to change the course of the incident saying Nusrat’s death was a ‘suicide.’

The police headquarters formed the panel on Apr 13 to investigate the incident.

A video spreading on Facebook showed that Nusrat was relentlessly crying while describing the incident to the OC. She covered her face with her hands. At that time, Moazzem said, “Move your hands from the face, stop crying, nothing happened that you have to cry.”

Syed Sayedul Haque, a lawyer, sued the OC for spreading the video on social media after recording Nusrat’s statement at the police station.

Bangladesh Cyber Crime Tribunal set May 27 as the deadline to the police to submit the investigation report on the case.