A Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader died at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital Thursday noon, nine days after he was admitted to the hospital in jail custody.
The deceased is Abul Kalam Azad, also known as alias Sohel Rana, 47, joint- secretary of Hatiandaha union BNP at Singra in Natore.
RMCH director Brigadier General FM Shamim Ahammad told New Age that Sohel, an office assistant of Hatiandaha Girl’s High School, was admitted to the hospital on November 29 in police custody following a stroke.
He said that Soehl, who secured bail on December 1, was taken to the intensive care unit where he breathed his last on Thursday.
Md Moshfiqur Rahman, jailer of Natore district jail, said that the police arrested Sohel in a sabotage case on November 21.
‘He fell sick in prison on November 29 and we admitted him to Natore district hospital’, he said, adding that they later transferred him to Rajshahi central jail as doctors referred him to the RMCH.
Moshfiqur said that the Rajshahi jail authorities admitted the accused to RMCH on the same day.
‘Sohel was released on December 1 after his bail documents had reached the jail’, he said, adding that he heard that the accused died at the hospital.
Quoting family, Singra upazila BNP member-secretary Dauder Mahmud said that the jail authorities did not inform the family about Sohel’s stroke.
‘We came to know that Sohel was admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital on November 29, a day after we secured his bail from the court on 30 November’, he said, alleging that the jail authorities killed Sohel by not providing him immediate and proper treatment.
Shahidul Islam Bachhu, convener of Natore district BNP, said that Sohel was not named in the case. ‘The police arrested him as an unnamed accused’, he said.