HC seeks explanation from investigation officer on torture of Jisan

The High Court has ordered investigation officer Shahidul Biswas to give a written explanation on the allegations that Jisan, the accused in the murder case of Ayaz Haque, a student of Dhaka's Government Laboratory School, was tortured and forced to confess. The explanation has been asked to be given by next Sunday.

A High Court bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasrin Akhter gave the order on Sunday.

On February 2, the High Court summoned the investigation officer in the murder case of Ayaz Haque, a student of Government Laboratory School.
Ayaz was murdered more than a decade ago due to a dispute over a friendly football tournament at the college.

The trial court delivered its verdict in the case on December 10, 2020. The accused were students of City College at the time. In the verdict, Inzamamul Islam alias Jisan was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Accused Touhidul Islam, Mashiur Rahman, Abu Saleh Md. Nasim and Arif Hossain were sentenced to life imprisonment. Zisan and Touhidul filed separate appeals against the trial court's verdict in 2021. The hearing on the appeal began in the High Court on January 19.

At the hearing, the accused Zisan's lawyer raised the allegation that he was taken into custody and tortured to extract a confession from him. Lawyer Mohammad Shishir Monir heard the case on behalf of Zisan in court. Today, he told reporters, "Zisan was taken into remand twice and a confession was extracted from him. His leg developed a boil, for which he had to be admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Due to the torture, he was kept in the burn unit there and treated for 15 days. I have presented the issues before the court, I have shown them from the documents.

The investigation officer of the case was Shahidul Biswas. At that time, he was an SI of Dhanmondi Police Station. He has been ordered to appear in court at 10:30 am today, Sunday, and explain his behavior. "In continuation of that, he was present in court today. He has been asked to provide a written explanation in this regard by next Sunday."