A university student named Md Ajmul Hossain, 22, has died after being severely beaten over an allegation of stealing food.
He was beaten at around midnight on Friday (September 18) on the roof of a four-storey building on Islamnagar road, next to Hall Road at Khulna University.
He was taken to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a serious condition and declared dead by doctors shortly afterwards.
Ajmul was a first-year student in the English department at North Western University in the city. His home was in Darshana, Chuadanga.
Hospital sources said several young men brought Ajmul to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a serious condition at around 1:30am on Friday night.
A former Khulna University student who was present at the scene said the student was seized over allegations of stealing food and various other items. Various pieces of information were then coming out of him through questioning, and he had admitted taking a vest, a shirt, trousers, shoes and money from a room.
He said the student was first told to speak to his father on loudspeaker. Ajmul told his father he had been staying there and had been caught trying to steal money and other items. His father asked him why he had got into all this. The phone was then passed to Rifat, who told the student’s father: “Your son has done this, you ought to come. Come tomorrow, come and make some arrangement. He cannot be kept here any longer.” The phone then passed to one or two others as well.
Family sources said that after the beating, a call was made to Ajmul’s father demanding one lakh taka as compensation for the theft.
The student’s father, Kutubuddin, said: “They called me at night and said something had happened here. Then on the phone one lakh taka was asked for as compensation. I said all right, keep him under you. Afterwards I called again and again, but nobody picked up, and later I found the phone switched off. I came to Khulna by train in the morning, and after I got there several people said, uncle, they have beaten your son to death. But the students say your son jumped from the roof. The people at the mess said, uncle, your son is at the 250-bed hospital.”
Hospital sources said several young men who identified themselves as Khulna University students brought Ajmul to Khulna Medical College Hospital in a serious condition at around 1:30am. He died 10 to 15 minutes after being taken there.
According to hospital sources, there were marks of injury in various places on Ajmul’s body, and the hair on one side of his head had been cut. The young men who brought him to the hospital slipped away quickly after his death.
The university’s director of student affairs, Professor Dr Md Salauddin, said: “The incident happened outside the university. We have no jurisdiction over incidents outside the university. But we have spoken to the police and the administration and are assisting them on this.”
Harintana police station’s officer-in-charge, Iqbal Hossain, said they had learned of the incident. The body is at the morgue of Khulna Medical College Hospital. Legal steps would be taken if a complaint were lodged at the police station by the family, he said.