‘We still live in fear’

Five years after a Dhaka court delivered the first-ever verdict under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, 2013, in the Ishtiaque Hossain Jonny murder case, the victim's family says justice remains incomplete.

Although the High Court disposed of the case in August this year, ruling on appeals lodged by the convicts, Jonny's relatives allege they continue to face threats from the accused.

"The accomplices of the accused persons are constantly threatening us. Some of them have asked me not to move any appeal before the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict, which commuted the sentence of a convict and also acquitted another," Jonny's younger brother Imtiaz Hossain Rocky told The Daily Star.

"Another group vandalised my garage last September, where I work for a living, and looted items from it. I filed a general diary with the police…," he said.

Rocky said former SI Zahidur Rahman and former ASI Rashidul are now in jail, while former SI Qamruzzaman Mintu remains absconding. Police informer Russell is in jail in another murder case, and informer Sumon has already served his term. "Our family, including me and Jonny's two children, are still living in fear," he said.

Defence lawyer Md Abdur Razzak Razu, however, dismissed Rocky's claim, saying he was making such allegations to draw sympathy. "The reality is that the families of the accused are now in a very vulnerable position," he said.

According to the case statement, police informers Sumon and Russell called law enforcers after Jonny, a garment-waste trader from Dhaka's Mirpur, slapped Sumon for stalking and harassing women at a wedding in Pallabi's Irani Camp area on February 8, 2014.

A team of 25–26 police officers, including then SI Zahidur, raided a house that night and detained Jonny and Rocky. The two were tortured at Pallabi Police Station.

The next day, Jonny fell ill and was taken to a local clinic before being transferred to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Rocky filed a murder case with the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court in Dhaka on August 8, 2014.

On September 9, 2020, the court sentenced Zahidur, Qamruzzaman, and Rashidul to life imprisonment, and informers Sumon and Russell to seven years in jail.

Qamruzzaman remains on the run, while Russell, who was absconding during the trial court verdict, later surrendered.

The convicts then filed separate appeals with the HC.

On August 11 this year, the HC bench of Justice SM Kuddus Zaman and Justice AKM Rabiul Hassan upheld the life imprisonment of Zahidur. As Qamruzzaman did not appeal, his sentence remains in force.

The HC commuted Rashidul's life sentence to 10 years in prison, acquitted Russell, and noted that Sumon had already served his seven-year term.

The full text of the HC verdict has not yet been released, said defence lawyer Razu and Rocky.