Fardin's death: Are investigating agency findings reliable?

Editorial Desk

The case pertaining to the murder of Fardin Nur, student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), was investigated by the Detective Branch (DB) of Police and elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). In the beginning, the two agencies were contradicting each other with different findings. But now they are on the same page, asserting that Fardin committed suicide, and was not murdered. Financial hardship and depression have been cited as reasons for this.

Anybody can experience depression and financial hardship. But suicide due to that is not a common. DB police invited Fardin’s classmates to explain the possibility of theory to them and this gave rise to further questions. What is the proof that Fardin is the person who jumped from the Sultana Kamal bridge? Fardin's father Kazi Nur Uddin rejected the findings of the investigation agency and said, "My son cannot commit suicide. He was killed in a planned manner.”

Which one is true—the statement of RAB and DB, or Fardin's father's claims? In the initial investigation, RAB said that the 'Raihan gang' was behind Fardin's murder. Raihan, the ringleader of this gang, is the controller of a section of Chanpara slum in Narayanganj. They also believed that Raihan and his accomplices had beaten Fardin to death on the night of the murder suspecting him as law enforcement informant.

At that time, DB commented that he may have been killed due to drug involvement. But this young man was killed elsewhere in Dhaka, not in Chanpara slum, and his body was dumped in the river. The head of the DB said, "Analysing the data of Fardin's mobile phone and the people he talked to in different places, it seems that he may have been killed somewhere in Dhaka city."

Both of the agencies’ recent statement does not match the previous statement at all. The latest revelation from the two organisations is that Fardin committed suicide by jumping from the Sultana Kamal Bridge. So on what basis did they speak of drug involvement? When a young person dies or commits suicide, involving him in drug related issues is not a healthy practice.

Fardin Nur Parash left home on 4 November for BUET campus. He had been missing ever since. Later on 5 November, his father filed a General Diary (GD) at Rampura police station. River police recovered his body from Shitalakshya river in Narayanganj on 7 November afternoon. Resident medical officer of Narayanganj General Hospital Sheikh Farhad told the media that Fardin's body was found with injury marks. It was initially believed to be a homicide.

Fardin's father Nur Uddin filed a murder case at Rampura Police Station as the plaintiff on 9 November. The next day, the DB police got the responsibility of investigating the case. RAB is responsible for the shadow investigation.

Government can appoint more than one agency to investigate any incident. The coordination and cooperation that should have existed between them, was sorely lacking in the investigation of the Fardin murder case.

Facts are often overshadowed by the competition of seeking credit between two agencies. It is necessary to look into whether something like that happened in the case of Fardin. Concerned persons need to remember that investigations must be both informative and credible.