Two Under-Trial Prisoners Die at Dhaka Central Jail, Relatives Create Uproar at Hospital

Two under-trial prisoners have died in separate incidents at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj. One of them is believed to have died of a stroke; the other had been suffering from dengue fever. Both were declared dead by doctors after being taken to hospital.

On Saturday (October 24) afternoon, duty doctors declared them dead after they were brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Afterwards, tension spread among the relatives of one of the deceased at the hospital.

The deceased are Rafiqul Islam (59) of Noakhali and Mehdi Hasan Kazi (19) of Madaripur. Both were held in jail as under-trial prisoners.

Prison guard Harun Sheikh said Rafiqul suddenly felt chest pain and fell seriously ill at Dhaka Central Jail around 3 pm on Saturday. On the jail authorities' instructions, he was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared him dead around 4 pm. Which case he was imprisoned in could not be known immediately.

The deceased Rafiqul was the son of Saidur Rahman of the 'Natun Bari' area under Kabirhat police station in Noakhali district. After the family was informed, the formal procedures following the death began.

Another prison guard, Md Sahabul Islam, said young Mehdi Hasan (under-trial prisoner number 10718/26), imprisoned in a case under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, had been undergoing treatment at the jail hospital with dengue fever. When his condition deteriorated on Saturday, he was taken to DMCH.

Sahabul Islam added that emergency department doctors transferred him to the medicine department of the new building, but on the way he collapsed unconscious on the ground floor. He was brought back to the emergency department, where doctors declared him dead around 5 pm.

Mehdi's brother Said Kazi alleged that his brother was an SSC candidate this year. Seven months ago he was arrested in a false case and sent to jail. Today he died of dengue in prison, he said.

Meanwhile, after Mehdi's death, his relatives demanded handover of the body without an autopsy and got into arguments and scuffles with the on-duty prison guards and Ansar members. Shahbagh police later arrived and brought the situation under control.

Inspector Md Habibur Rahman, in-charge of the DMCH hospital police camp, confirmed the deaths of the two under-trial prisoners. He said both bodies have been kept at the DMCH morgue for autopsy and the jail authorities have been informed.

The inspector added that after an inquest report is prepared in the presence of an executive magistrate, the autopsy will be completed, and the exact cause of death will be confirmed once the report is received. The bodies will be handed over to relatives after the legal process ends.

Whenever a prisoner dies in jail, prescribed legal procedures must be followed. In these two deaths as well, the autopsy reports will finally confirm the causes, and until then the bodies will remain at the morgue.