RU student sends complaint to proctor via courier after leaving hall

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A student of Rajshahi University (RU) left the dormitory after being allegedly beaten up by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men and later couriered a written complaint to the authorities.

According to the letter, Al Amin, a final year student of Accounting and Information Systems, was tortured for over three hours on 17 August at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman hall of the university. After he was beaten up, two BCL leaders snatched his debit card and withdrew Tk 45,000.

The administration formed a three-member probe body on Thursday evening over the issue, hours after they received a letter containing these complaints.

RU proctor professor Asabul Haque received the letter. He said a body has been formed to probe the matter.

The written complaint says Al Amin appeared at the first exam of his seven semester final on 17 August. As soon as he left the exam hall of Rabindra building, RU BCL unit vice-president Suranjit Prasad Saha and Matihar hall unit general secretary Bhaskar Saha took him to Room No. 331 of Bangabandhu hall.

After a while, some BCL leaders, including Mominur Rahman, Faisal Ahmed alias Shashi and Taki Ahmed – who are students of marketing department under 2013-14 session – came to the room.

Al Amin said he engaged in freelancing jointly with Mominur, Faisal, and Taki for several months. But he left the team about a year ago due to misunderstanding with them. There was no contract paper for this job.

Al-Amin claimed Mominur Rahman beat him up mercilessly. Mominur struck him on the head with a two-litre water bottle and sticks. Unable to bear the torture, he fainted at a stage – a time when the BCL leaders extracted personal information from his cell phone. After he regained sense, Suranjit Prasad and Bhaskar Saha forcibly took a debit card from him and withdrew Tk 45,000. Following that, Mominur and his followers threatened to kill him.

They forced him to give false statements and videotaped that. They threatened him that he would be murdered if he says or does anything going against them. So, he followed whatever they said to do, just for survival, the latter added.

Al-Amin also accused them of trying to scare him into signing a stamp paper, but failed to do so as journalists, police and others arrived at the hall in connection with another incident. He was released at around 9.00pm.

Then, he left the hall for Shariatpur, his hometown, on the same night to save his life, leaving his exams unfinished. Al Amin is still receiving death threats.

Al-Amin said he is scared as they have seized his admit card. Since he is unable to come to Rajshahi, he couriered the letter. He wants justice for this assault.

Al-Amin’s father Delowar Hossain told Prothom Alo over phone, “I went through a lot of hardships to send my son to the university. But what kind of a public university is this, where my son gets beaten up and sent home. I took him to a doctor, who said that he is suffering from brain and ear related injuries. My son is now acting strangely. I want justice for my son.”

He further added, “My son learnt online freelance work. He used to study and bear the expenses of his younger brother’s education. He also used to support us. Now he doesn’t want to return to Rajshahi.”

When asked about the allegations against him, Mominur Rahman told Prothom Alo, he gave jobs to Al-Amin and a few others when they were financially struggling.

After working for 1-1.5 years, Al-Amin said that he would sit for the BCS exam and quit the job. But Al-Amin and some of them opened another company. That company took clients from his company and as a result he has suffered losses worth Tk 100 million. On 17 August, they sat with Al-Amin to discuss and sort out this issue. Nobody physically harmed him.

When asked about taking Tk 45,000, Mominur Rahman said, Suranjit Prasad Britto and Bhaskar Saha were present during the discussions. But he doesn’t know what happened after the discussion.

University Chhatra League unit’s joint president Suranjit Prasad Britto was contacted multiple times but he didn’t pick up his calls. Motihar Hall Chhatra League unit’s general secretary Bhaskar Saha said he and many others were present in that day’s discussions. There was a business related dispute between Mominur and Al-Amin. The allegation against him is false, there is a conspiracy against him.

An investigation is underway against Bhaskar Saha at the university, for allegedly beating up a student from the economics department named Shamsul Islam for extortion.

Students, their guardians and the teachers of the economics department protested against the attack for two days, demanding punishment for Bhaskar. According to the complaint made at the proctor office, Bhaskar physically attacked the student at Room No. 232 of Motihar Hall on 19 August.