Relatives say Rajan, who was beaten to death in Sylhet, was to be raped

Relatives of slain Samiul Alam Rajan have said the accusation that the boy had stolen a rickshaw van was sheer fabrication and that the reason of his murder was different.

His uncles Abdul Malek and Omar Faruk said the guard Moyna Mia alias Boro Moyna wanted to ‘rape’ Rajan.

Having failed to fulfil his pervert desire, Mia staged a drama of theft to kill Rajan, they alleged, at the Sylhet court complex.

Mia was one of the accused in the case filed over the killing of the 13-year-old boy at Kumargaon of Sylhet Sadar Upazila.

Mia, besides other accused Ali Haider alias Ali and Kamrul Islam, went into hiding following the incident.

On Monday, a Sylhet court granted police five days to grill Muhit Alam for his suspected involvement in the murder.

Police also arrested Ismail Hossain Abluchh, who, too, is believed to have taken part in the gruesome torture.

On July 8, Samiul Alam Rajan was beaten to death for allegedly stealing a rickshaw van at Kumargaon.

One of the torturers had filmed the atrocity and released the shocking footage on a social networking site.

The 28-minute video clip created a firestorm on the social media.

After hearing of the remand petition in court on Monday, Omar Faruk told journalists, “The guard Moyna has a lot of allegations against him. He does bad things with little boys.”

Faruk alleged Rajan was killed after he rejected Moyna’s proposal.

Rajan’s father Azizur Rahman and mother Lubna Akter said Kamrul Islam fled to Saudi Arabia a day after the incident.

Sylhet Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Commissioner Rahmat Ullah said they had alerted the immigration police to stop him from leaving the country. 

But Islam was arrested in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Locals and the victim’s relatives expressed anger over the failure to arrest most of the criminals five days on.

Locals have been holding demonstrations following the incident.

At a rally in front of Rajan’s home on Sunday night, which ended at 12pm on Monday, they set police a 12-hour deadline to catch the culprits.

Locals said they would hold a meeting at 11pm on Monday to decide on a fresh programme.

Police, however, said they had already identified the criminals who tortured Rajan and were trying to arrest them.

Police official Rahmat Ullah said a special team had been formed to hunt them down.