Please - Odhikar

Environment of the custody:
2. TegjaonThana
There were three custody rooms in Tegjaon thana for keeping arrested people and the size of
each custody was made as per the requirements of the law - 36 square feet per prisoner. Water
supply was very irregular. Light was inadequate. People in custody were found buying water
from outside. Men, women and children were kept in separate custody rooms. Lock-ups were,
allegedly, cleaned regularly. There were separate toilets for male and female arrestees. Once a
day the food was provided to the arrestees. Relatives of the arrestees supplied other meals or
they had to procure food from outside. The custody rooms were found over-crowded. Sometimes
the age of the children were inappropriately registered. The register book was seen with a lot of
corrections and it was learnt that arrestees were freed in exchange of money.
Police’s behavior towards victims:
Most of the time complainants/victims had to wait for more than one hour for drawing the
attention of the police (filing cases and so on). Normally the behavior they receive in return is
quite ruthless and insensitive. The police were observed no to pay proper attention to the
statements of the complainants/victims. Most of the time they did not even listen to the
complainants/victims. During the filing of a case, the police were usually observed not
mentioning the reasons to the victim or the accused. But in the complaint (Ejhar) the offence
was mentioned properly and a copy of that was provided to complainant/victim.
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* Moniruzzaman who was arrested under section 75 of DMP Ordinance was produced
before the court after 34 hours. As per law an arrestee must be produced in court within
24 hours of arrest.
* Three teenagers were found in the lock up who’s ages could not be more than 15/16. But
in the custody register their ages were noted down as 19/20 and they were kept with the
adult detainees.
* Swapon and Mahin, arrested under Section100/75 of the DMP Ordinance, claimed to
have been tortured physically and verbally abused. The said that ASI Waged Ali claimed
Tk 1,000 from them.
* Faroque was arrested under section 100/74 of the DMP Ordinance.He claimed that the
police asked for Tk. 2000 from him and snatched his mobile phone (0187560869).
* Two young women, Ripa and Lucky, were arrested for prostitution. They said that the
police behaved indecently and rudely.
* While monitoring the station, police brought in one arrestee named Kausar and the Duty
Officer informed Odhikar that he was arrested under G.R Warrant. The arrestee was
allegedly checked by having his clothes stripped off. He informed Odhikar loudly that
there was no case filled against him and that Police had arrested him by a conspiracy.
Report 2005