Bangladesh civil society demands judicial probe into Hindu family’s murder
A civil society group on Saturday demanded judicial investigation into the murder of a Hindu family amid skepticism over police explanations about the massacre in northwestern Rangpur in Bangladesh.
The demand by Rangpur City Civic Society (RCCS) came two days after leading rights group Ain O Shalish Kendra (ASK) and minority rights group Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council raised questions surrounding the police account of the family's murder.
Decomposed bodies of retired Hindu school teacher Ganapati Chakraborty, 65, his wife Pritilata Chakraborty, 50, and their children, Agami Chakraborty Prarthi, 23, and Priyam Chakraborty, 12, were discovered August 22 in their locked home in Rangpur.
Police detained two men, cousins Mughdho and Siddhartha, for their involvement in the killings.
On Saturday, the RCCS said in a statement read out at a press conference: “The police comments in the media over the murders of all four members of the family after the arrest of two suspects created skepticism and questions in the public mind reflecting their lack of confidence on police actions.”
The group said they identified 19 questions regarding the two subsequent police statements which contradicted the comments of the slain family’s relatives, circumstance of the crime scene and forensic experts.
The ASK group raised near identical questions surrounding the police account of the murder of the family saying the skepticisms should not be dismissed as baseless or misleading.
“It is crucial to clarify if any forensic and digital evidence was found which is consistent with the police claims regarding the motive, timeline, and method of the killings, the unusual phone call at 2:40 am, and the suspects' presence,” the ASK said on Thursday.
A minority body also raised questions about the murders.
“We are watching the developments. But it remains a big question how two alleged drug addicts could kill four people and give the house a look of a robbery scene in such a meticulous manner,” a leader of the minority rights group Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council said.
Police had in their first briefing on August 23 said Chakraborty was killed on the rooftop of his house and his wife and daughter were killed on a second-floor staircase while his son was killed in his sleep inside the house, the RCCS said.
In the second briefing on August 27, the narrative changed the crime scenes, stating that the teacher, his wife, and his daughter were all killed on the open rooftop, the RCCS added.
Rangpur Commissioner Abdul Mabud, in his second briefing, had said that the bodies of the mother and daughter were subsequently moved to the staircase inside the rooftop gate to hide them from the view of neighboring houses.
The arrested duo had allegedly entered the rooftop of Chakraborty's house through a neighbouring building and took the drug yaba there on Thursday night, Commissioner Mabud said.
“It needs to be investigated how normal it is for four members of a family to be murdered only for trying to prevent Yaba (drug) consumption,” member-secretary of the RCCS Palash Kanti Nag told the press conference.
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