Death in 'custody': Poor health, not torture led to death, RAB claims
It was ill health and not torture that led to the death of Sultana Jasmine, an employee of Naogaon union parishad land office, the Rapid Action Battalion said on Monday.
The law enforcement agency also levelled accusations of illegal transactions against the land office employee.
Categorically denying allegation of torturing Jasmine, who died after being detained by the law enforcement agency on 24 March, RAB-5 Commanding Officer Lt Col Riyaz Shahriar said she fell ill soon after being picked up.
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Speaking to The Business Standard, Shahriar said they arrested Jasmine over a Digital Security Act case.
"We had detained her at around 11:30am. As we don't have any camp in Naogoan, she was supposed to be taken to the Joypurhat RAB office. From detention to getting sick, she was in RAB custody for around one-and-a-half hours and all the way, she was inside the RAB vehicle, so there was no way of torturing her," he said.
"We detained her over serious allegations and we got information that she had a hefty amount of illegally-gained money in her accounts. As part of the interrogation, we asked for her mobile phone while she was in our vehicle.
"At first, she refused to give it, but she finally handed it over. We found several screenshots of her illegal money transactions. When we asked about these transactions, she got tensed and at one point started vomiting in the car," he said.
Shariar said she was then taken to Naogoan hospital and her relatives were called.
Doctors primarily suspected a cardiac arrest and while preparing an inquest report, neither the executive magistrate nor eyewitnesses found any injury marks or external wounds on her body, he added.
"We were aware that she is a government employee and a woman. Why should we torture her? How can someone even be tortured in a car?" Shahriar said.
Quoting relatives of the deceased, the RAB commanding officer also claimed that she had serious medical issues and wasn't on medication.
Earlier, Naogaon General Hospital Supervisor Zahid Nazrul Chowdhury said she was brought to the hospital in critical condition, adding she suffered from heart disease.
There were also no injury marks on her body.
However, Brigadier General FM Shamim Ahmed, director of the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, said she sported a small red mark on her head.
A CT scan at that time showed massive bleeding from her brain. She died from the excessive bleeding, he said.
