Four police officers, including the in-charge of Bandar Bazar outpost of Kotwali Police Station in Sylhet, were suspended and three others withdrawn from the outpost on Monday for their suspected involvement torturing a man to death in police custody on the previous day.

The police outpost in-charge Akbar Ali Bhuiyan, its constables Harunur Rashid, Tauhid Mia and Titu Chandra Das were suspended, and assistant sub-inspectors Ashek Elahi and Kutub Ali and constable Sajib Hossain were withdrawn from the outpost, said Sylhet Metropolitan Police additional deputy commissioner Jyotirmay Sarker.

He also said that the actions were taken after the allegation of beating a man to death in police custody was found true in primary inquiry. 

He told New Age that they had already started an investigation into the death of Raihan, a man in his thirties.

Raihan was a compounder of a doctor at Stadium Market and resident of Neharipara of Akhalia in the Sylhet city. SMP formed a three-member committee on Sunday night to investigate the death.

The committee members are SMP additional deputy commissioner (north) Shahriar Al Mamun, additional deputy commissioner (south) Hasan Uddin Chowdhury and Biman Bandar Police Station assistant commissioner Prabas Kumar Singha.

Raihan’s widow Tahmina Akter Tanni, 22, filed a murder case with Kotwali Police Station on Sunday midnight. She alleged in the case that some unknown people took her husband to Bandar Bazar police outpost on early Sunday.

She also complained that her husband was brutally tortured in the outpost where the torturers pounded him tying his hands and legs and even pulled out nails.

‘My husband died of torture in police custody,’ Tanni alleged. The police on Sunday morning claimed that Raihan died on the way to hospital after they had rescued him from Kastaghar area where he had been captured while snatching money from a pedestrian.

The victim’s family, however, said that the police beat Raihan to death as he failed to pay them the money they wanted from him.

Raihan’s mother Salma Begum said she got a phone call from an unknown number at 4:23am where Raihan said her that Bandar Bazar police officers had picked him up and asked for Tk 10,000 for his release.

‘My son said police would release him if we go to the police outpost with the amount immediately,’ she said.

Raihan’s uncle Habibulla told reporters that he rushed to the police outpost in the early morning with some money but the officers declined to release him without the payment of full amount they demanded.

‘I went again to the Bandar Bazar police outpost with Tk 10,000 at about 9:30am, but officers said that Raihan was sent to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital as he had fallen sick,’ he claimed.

Raihan was buried at a graveyard at Akhalia area on Sunday night, his relatives said.

Local ward councillor Nazrul Islam Munim told New Age that they checked the footages recorded by close-circuit cameras installed at the Kastghar area, but no incident of mass beating on Sunday early morning was found.

‘No local people have reported such incident in the area,’ Munim added.

Family members, relatives, well-wishers and neighbours of Raihan on Monday also staged demonstrations at the Akhalia area on Monday afternoon protesting at the death and seeking justice.