A case was filed against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 26 others for the custodial death murder of former Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu in Rajshahi Central Jail in 2015.
Pintu鈥檚 brother Nasim Ahmed Rintu filed the case with the Rajshahi Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court on Wednesday under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act 2013, said his lawyer Abdul Malek Rana.
Judge Al-Asad Md Asifuzzaman asked the Police Bureau of Investigation to investigate the case and submit its report on March 13.
The other accused include Hasina鈥檚 cousin and former Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, nephew and former Dhaka South City mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, AL presidium member and former minister Jahangir Kabir Nanok, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former law minister Anisul Haque, former lawmaker Haji Mohammad Salim and his son Irfan Selim, former inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Hoque, former inspector general of prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin, former Dhaka deputy inspector general of prisons Golam Haider, former Rajshahi DIG of prisons Bazlur Rashid, Rajshahi Central Jail former superintendent Shafiqul Islam, former jailor Shahadat Hossain, former prison physician Abu Sayem and BDR Mutiny Case investigation officer Abdul Kahar Akand.
According to the complaint, Pintu, then BNP assistant sectary, was arrested on the High Court premises on June 3, 2009, in the BDR mutiny case and was subsequently subjected to severe torture while in police custody.
Despite a High Court order allowing his medical treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and Bangladesh Eye Hospital, he was transferred to Rajshahi Central Jail, where he was allegedly denied proper medical attention
On May 3, 2015, news reports surfaced stating that Pintu died in Rajshahi Central Jail. Prison authorities claimed that he had fallen ill and died while receiving treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. Doctors at the hospital, however, stated that he was brought dead, the complaint stated.
The plaintiff said that after his brother fell sick on May 2, 2015, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital former cardiology department head Dr Rois Uddin, upon receiving an official letter from the prison authority, went to visited Pintu.
鈥楬owever, the accused, including then Rajshahi Central Jail officials, did not allow Dr Rois Uddin to treat his brother falsely citing security concerns, which proves that my brother was killed in a planned way,鈥� he said.
Nasim said that they had been seeking justice for the murder for the past nine years, but then administration鈥檚 influence prevented them to take any legal proceedings.
Hasina, who fled to India amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024, is now facing more than 200 cases, mostly on murder and crimes against humanity charges.