A Chhatra League leader died after falling from a 10-storey building in Dhaka’s Hazaribagh, with his family alleging that he was beaten before being thrown from the rooftop.
The deceased was identified as Salek Khan Babu, 35. His mother, Sufia Begum, 55, has alleged that her son was assaulted by several people and subsequently pushed from the roof of the building. Police have arrested two people following the filing of a murder case over the incident.
The incident took place on Thursday afternoon, 1 October, at Ali Manzil, a 10-storey building at 279/1 in the Shankar-Jafrabad area of Hazaribagh.
According to the first information report filed by Babu’s mother, an argument broke out between Babu and a security guard named Badhan at around 5:40pm. The dispute reportedly escalated into a physical confrontation. At one stage, Badhan allegedly struck Babu on the head with an iron angle.
The complaint states that Babu cried out after being injured, prompting another security guard, identified as Milton, and several others to gather at the scene. They allegedly assaulted him again.
At around 6:10pm, Milton allegedly took Babu to the rooftop of the building. The two reportedly returned downstairs after some time. Babu was subsequently found in a severely injured condition on the tin roof of a structure on the southern side of the building. His mother has alleged that he died while attempts were being made to rescue him.
Police were informed and went to the scene later that night. Officers recovered Babu’s body from the tin roof of a garage on a plot beside the southern side of the building. A preliminary report was prepared before the body was sent to the mortuary of Dhaka Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Sufia Begum has accused the building’s caretaker, Milton, security guard Badhan Chakma and several others of assaulting her son. She alleged that Babu was first taken to the second floor, where he was repeatedly beaten with iron rods, before being taken to the rooftop and thrown from the building.
The murder case names Milton, 42, Badhan Chakma, 50, and seven to eight unidentified people as accused. The allegations made in the case are yet to be established, and investigators are examining the circumstances surrounding Babu’s death.
Hazaribagh police station officer-in-charge Mosharraf Hossain said Babu’s mother had filed a murder case over the incident. Two people had been arrested from the scene, he said, adding that the investigation was under way.
The post-mortem examination and investigation are expected to help establish the precise cause and circumstances of Babu’s death. Police are also looking into the sequence of events leading from the reported altercation to his fall from the building.
