Family of a 13-year-old Bangladeshi boy, who was brutally tortured to death, has alleged that a police officer arranged safe passage for one of the killers nabbed in Saudi Arabia, prompting authorities to order a probe amid mounting protests.
Sheikh Azizur Rahman, father of the teenage vegetable vendor Samiul Alam Rajan who was tied to a pole and beaten up for nearly 30 minutes until he died and whose video footage has caused widespread outrage, told reporters sub-inspector Aminul Islam had struck a 12 lakh Taka deal for the favour.
He said family of brothers Kamrul Islam, who was nabbed in Jeddah yesterday on the tip-off by Bangladeshi expatriates, and Muhith Alam bribed the officer of Taka 6 lakh and promised to pay an equal amount later for helping Islam fly to Saudi Arabia passing the immigration counter at the Sylhet Airport.
The officer also used his influence in getting Alam off the hook, said an agonised Rahman, now being treated at a Sylhet hospital, yesterday.
He alleged that the officer had declined to lodge his complaint, telling him he "wrongly accused" two of the killers as "they were not present at the murder scene".
Police overnight ordered an investigation into the allegations.
"That officer has been withdrawn from duty and asked to report to the police commissioners office immediately... investigations into allegations against him have been launched," a police spokesman told PTI over phone.
Authorities formed a three-member committee, headed by additional police commissioner of Sylhet S M Rokon Uddin, to investigate the allegations. The committee has been asked to submit its report in three days, he said.
Rights groups and civic bodies continued to stage rallies and form human chains carrying pictures of the teen after the gory 28-minute video, showing Rajan screaming for help, crying for water and begging for his life while the killers laughed and jeered at him, went viral.
The foreign ministry and police said efforts are underway to bring Islam back to try him for the barbaric murder.
A prime accused, Moyna Mia, said Rajan was tortured for some four hours in northeastern Sylhet last week and that the ordeal was not of 28 minutes as suggested by the video.
Mia, a security guard in the neighbourhood, had caught Rajan claiming he was involved in stealing a rickshaw and invited the other killers at an isolated area where they tied him to a pole and beat him for hours with a metal rod.
Rajan's relatives and neighbours said Mia wanted to rape him but after failing to do so, he set up a case against him.
The reports said Mia was hiding at the house but his mother herself called the neighbours to hand his son over to police as she came to know what he did.
