Dhaka, Mar 1 – Over two months after death of a marine engineer under mysterious circumstances in the city, investigating agency, Detective Branch (DB) in this case, is claiming of making inroads in probing the incident. But father of Rafiqul Hasan Rimon, who was found dead in an under-construction building in the city on December 17 last year, is now struggling to keep faith in DB probe any longer and asking for a proper investigation by the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).
Victim’s father Mohammad Khalilullah alleged that the investigation agency is trying to prove his son as a drug addict and his ‘murder’ an accident.
Rimon, who was divorced by his wife one month before his death, sent his two children to their maternal grandfather’s house at Elephant Road through his friend Ripon around 7:50pm on December 16 after celebrating the Victory Day with them.
He had gone missing after 9 pm on the night. A general diary was registered with New Market Police Station the following day over his missing.
The investigation officer (IO) of the case, however, claimed that there has been a ‘remarkable progress’ in the probe.
The body of Rimon, 42, an Uttara resident and a captain of a foreign ship, was found on the ground floor of an 11-storey under-construction building in Sukraband on the night of December 17, a day after he had gone missing.
Rimon’s father filed a case with New Market Police Station the following day over the incident. The case was later transferred to the DB and its inspector Alamgir given the charge of investigation.
Talking to UNB, Khalilullah alleged that his son was killed in a planned way following a dispute over his flat, which has been ‘grabbed’ by Sajedul Karim Rony, one of their distant relatives.
“But the investigation agency is not paying any heed to the issue; rather it has been trying to establish that my son died due to fall from the height,” he said.
He claimed that Rimon was forcibly taken to the under-construction building where he was tortured to death and then the body was thrown from the building.
“We want the killers to be brought to justice through impartial investigation. However, the DB is mysteriously reluctant to unearth the mystery behind the killing and it is also trying to establish that my son was a drug addict,” Khalilullah claimed.
He said that the family wants PBI, a specialised police unit, to investigate the incident.
Contacted, IO of the case DB Inspector Alamgir claimed that there has been a ‘remarkable progress’ in the probe. “We’re investigating the incident keeping in mind several aspects, including family feud, enmity over the possession of an apartment and Rimon’s alleged extramarital affair with a woman,” he said.
He said they arrested one suspect, Bahar, two days after the incident. “He was interrogated after being taken on remand twice for five days when he revealed that he along with Rimon went to the Sukrabad under-construction building on December 16 night along with four Yaba tablets.”
After taking drugs, Rimon went to the space kept for lift in the dark and fell through the hole, Alamgir claimed saying he was quoting from the statement made by Bahar, now languishing in jail.
“After analysing the statements of workers of the under-construction building, Bahar and another person named Moni as well as the postmortem report, it seems to us that Rimon died due to the fall from the height,” the IO said.
He, however, said they were trying to unearth the truth behind the incident. “We’ll surely identify the culprit if anyone is involved with the incident.”
Denying the allegation of the victim’s father that the DB is not properly investigating the incident, Alamgir said they are conducting a neutral probe into it. – UNB
