Sylhet
Controversial OC Delwar Hossain, a beneficiary of the fascist government, allowed the body of a worker who drowned in the river while trying to cover up the environmentally destructive theft of sand and stones from a save machine in the Jadukata border river in Tahirpur, Sunamganj, to be secretly buried without an autopsy.
Delwar Hossain is working as the Officer-in-Charge (OC) at Tahirpur Police Station in Sunamganj.
The deceased worker is named Habibur Rahman, son of Jahangir Alam of Basantpur village in Bishwambharpur.
Multiple witnesses on the ground on Thursday said that on Wednesday night, like every night, hundreds of workers stole mineral sand and stone using more than fifty environmentally destructive engine-driven (mechanical) save machines south of the under-construction Jadukata Bridge.
On Thursday morning, Habibur Rahman, a worker who was working with others to extract sand and stone from a save machine, drowned in the water of Jadukata in Basantpur village of Bishwambharpur. A few hours after his disappearance, Habibur Rahman's body was found floating in the Jadukata. Meanwhile, in an attempt to cover up the theft of state assets worth crores of taka from a save machine that was destroying the environment, the OC of the police station and the IC of the Badaghat Police Investigation Center gave verbal permission to bury the body secretly, claiming that the deceased worker had died of respiratory problems.
After the post-mortem report was prepared, the OC took the body of the deceased home without the permission of the District Magistrate and gave permission for burial. The family of the deceased took the body home and buried it secretly. On Thursday, people from several villages, including Garkati village on the banks of the Jadukata River in Tahirpur, confirmed to the media that the worker had drowned and disappeared in the river while illegally extracting mineral sand and stones using a save machine.
On Thursday evening, SI Abul Kalam Chowdhury, in-charge of the Badaghat Police Investigation Center of Tahirpur Police Station, said that the worker was suffering from respiratory problems, so the OC sir gave verbal permission to take the body home and bury it. Tahirpur Police Station OC Mohammad Delwar Hossain said that the worker was sick, so since no one complained after he was killed, I gave verbal permission to bury the body.
It has been alleged that since joining Tahirpur police station in collusion with the border river sand mining syndicate, OC Delwar used to collect bribes at the rate of 2 per hour against sand stone in the save machine, river bank mining and stone theft cases through multiple sources. The police officers in charge of the Badaghat Police Investigation Center used to get their daily share. For this reason, the OC verbally gave permission to bury the body of the deceased worker without preparing the post-mortem report of the deceased worker and sending the body of the deceased worker to the District Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy.
On Thursday evening, a responsible source in the Sunamganj district administration said that in case of any kind of accidental or unnatural death, if the body of the deceased is to be buried without an autopsy following the legal process, the appropriate heir of the deceased's family should submit a written application to the District Magistrate, even if there is no complaint against anyone.
The body of a person who has died due to an accidental death or other cause can only be buried if the District Magistrate, after investigating/verifying the written application, grants permission. The OC has no jurisdiction to give permission/consent, either verbally or in writing, for the burial of such a person.
