The police on Wednesday said that they had on Tuesday arrested three people at separate places in Chattogram for their alleged involvement in beating a youth to death in the port city on August 13.
The arrestees are Farhad Ahmed Chowdhury Jewel, 42, Anisur Rahman Ifat, 19, and a 16-year-old boy.
Chattogram Metropolitan Police鈥檚 additional deputy commissioner (media) Kazi Md Tarek Aziz said that they arrested the trio in drives at two places 鈥� one in the Gate Number 2 area and the other in the Shilpakala Academy area 鈥� in the port city between 5:00pm and 9:00pm on Tuesday.
The 20-second video of the incident that went viral on September 21 showed the victim, Shahadat Hossain, 24, tied to two steel-made poles under the Akhtaruzzaman Flyover in the city鈥檚 Gate Number 2 area.
It showed that several individuals were assaulting the man while singing a Bangla song, 鈥楳adhu Hoi Hoi Bish Khawaila鈥�. The others were seen cheering and playing whistles when the victim was crying.
Addressing a press conference at the office of the CMP commissioner on Wednesday, ADC Tarek Aziz said that the three arrested people were seen beating the youth in the video that went viral.
He said that the suspects were identified and arrested on information that they opened a WhatsApp group named 鈥楥hattogram Chhatra-Janata Traffic Group鈥�.
He said that the perpetrators, after beating the victim to death on August 13, dumped the body at the Probortok intersection.
ADC Tarek, referring to information extracted from the arrestees during primary interrogation, said that over 20 individuals, including the three arrestees, were involved in the beating.
鈥楽hahadat was beaten on suspicion that he was a snatcher,鈥� he said.
He said that detained Farhad, the admin of the 鈥楥hattogram Chhatra-Janata Traffic Group鈥�, led the attack.
鈥楩arhad is not affiliated with any political party. He is involved in different temporary businesses. The detained 16-year-old suspect is not a student and is currently unemployed, while Anisur is a college student in the Chandgaon area,鈥� he said.
The police officer said that victim Shahadat was named in six criminal cases filed with Kotwali police station.
On August 14, the police recovered the body from a place near the Badnashah Mia shrine in Chattogram.
Though the body remained unidentified initially at Chattogram Medical College Hospital morgue, family members later identified it as the body of Shahadat there.
Shahadat, 24, son of late Mohammad Harun, from Nadna village under Sonaimuri police station in Noakhali, was a fruit shop worker in Falmundi area of Chattogram city. He and his wife, Sharmin Akhter, used to live in the Boiler Colony of the BRTC area under Kotwali police station in Chattogram.