Rickshaw puller torturer denied bail, sent to jail

A Dhaka court on Wednesday sent Md Sultan Ahmed to jail for torturing a rickshaw puller. His bail petition was rejected.

Md Sultan Ahmed was arrested for assaulting a rickshaw puller over a trifling matter in the capital's Bangshal area on Tuesday.

The incident took place in front of the councillor office of ward-34 around 1:30pm when commuters got stuck there in heavy traffic.

After the initial hearing, the judge of Metropolitan Magistrate Court-15 ordered the next hearing for 23 May. As such, the accused has to be in jail for the next 19 days.   

A reporter made a video recording of the incident and posted it on social media. Within hours, the video clip went viral, triggering a huge public outcry.

In the video clip, the man, wearing panjabi and prayer cap, swooped on the rickshaw puller all of a sudden and started to hit him. At one stage, the rickshaw puller fell to the road.

Sohel Rana, assistant inspector general (media and public relations) of Bangladesh police, said police nabbed the man upon receiving a complaint in this regard on Bangladesh Police's official Facebook page.

A team led by Bangshal Police Station Officer in-Charge, Md Shahin, conducted a drive in the area and arrested Sultan Ahmed. He confessed to having attacked rickshaw puller.

After the incident, police searched for the rickshaw puller in a number of places, including Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Mitford Hospital, but couldn't find him.

Later, accused Sultan Ahmed was shown arrested under section 54 and produced in court.