Shawdesh Desk:

Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) on Thursday closed two assistant sub inspectors (ASI) in connection with the death of a former Anti-Corruption Commission official in police custody.

The cops identified as Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Md Yusuf Ali and ATM Sohel Rana were posted at the concerned Chandgaon Police Station.

The duo picked up the former ACC official Syed Mohammad Shahidullah near his residence on Tuesday night.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Pankaj Dutta of the CMP said the cops were closed in connection with the incident.

They were attached with the Police Lines, he said.

Earlier, the CMP also formed a three-member committee headed by deputy commissioner (DC-North) of Detective Branch (DB) to investigate into the matter.

The committee was asked to submit report within three days.

Pankaj, who is the member secretary of the committee, said they started investigation into the matter.

Mentionable, the former ACC official Shahidullah, 64, died in police custody soon after his arrest in a case on early Wednesday.

The family of the deceased termed it as “murder,” alleging that the sexagenarian, who had been suffering from cardiac problems and underwent bypass surgery earlier, might have been tortured in custody.

The police also did not allow him to take emergency medicine at that time that led to the death, they said.

Officer in-Charge (OC) Khairul Islam of the police station said there was an arrest warrant against Shahidullah in a case filed with a court over assaulting and giving threat earlier.

“Two police personnel went to his residence and apprehended him around 11pm. He was taken to the police station and kept sitting in my room,” said the OC.

All on a sudden, he complained of chest pain and was rushed to Parkview Hospital, where doctors declared him dead around 12:15am, Khairul said.

He claimed that no misconduct was done with Shahidullah, who was known to him (OC) since earlier.

Police sources said one Rony Akter Tania, who claimed herself as a domestic help of Shahidullah, filed the case following which the police went to arrest the retired officer on Tuesday night.

The plaintiff brought allegations of assaulting her and giving threat, when she went for her arrears, against the accused in the case.

But, Shahidullah’s son Captain Nafis Shahid, a pilot of US-Bangla Airlines, told the Daily Sun that they never heard of any case against his father and also didn’t get any summon.

“We have dispute with some people, who demanded extortion during developing structures on one of our lands in August. We also filed a case against them in this connection,” he said.

There was no domestic help named Tania at their residence. Their opponents might have worked behind the ‘false’ case, Nafis suspected.