In a bizarre incident, a 38-year-old man identified as Sushnata Ghosh, an accused in the ATM skimming case which rocked the state couple of months back, died in police custody at West Agartala Police Station in West Tripura district on the wee hours on Sunday morning.
The deceased was, reportedly, arrested from his residence after police came to know about his involvement in the case from Turkish and Bangladeshi conmen arrested in November last year for ATM cloning, officials said.
Speaking to this reporter, Officer-in-charge of West Agartala Police Station Subrata Chakraborty said, Sushanta Ghosh, an eatery owner at Ghoshpara village of Lankamura in West Tripura where he also used to live, was sent on one-day police remand on Saturday by a local Court. “There are links between international foreigners and him. We prayed for 10 days police custody but the Court granted one-day police remand” said a cyber cell official in the condition of anonymity.
“Cyber-crime sleuths of Tripura Police picked up Sushanta from Lankamura who has been repeatedly summoned by the police for investigation; he was sent to police custody yesterday. And, he was spotted hanging in the toilet attached to the lock-up room”, the OC informed this reporter.
He further claimed the deceased went to the lavatory late night at around 3:54 AM yesterday and did not return. An on-duty sentry guard observed his absence in the lock-up and entered inside to inspect the issue. Entering the toilet, the sentry guard spotted Sushanta hanging from the hinges of the door.
The police have, however, also ruled out any possibility of custodial torture that leads to death as they have the CCTV footage featuring Sushanta entering the closet.
“Though there are no cameras in the closet, our footage clearly shows him entering there and not coming back. He used the towel that is being provided to the people in custody”, OC Subrata Chakraborty said.
On the other hand, the family members of the deceased denied to accept the theory of police and claimed there have been no chances of Sushanta doing so. His sister, Mousumi Ghosh Das, alleged that he had been subjected to inhuman torture by the police.
“Since January 01, he has been summoned by police repeatedly. Two times, he has been interrogated at police headquarters. He has been called at cyber crime unit of the police too. But, police never disclose as to why he was being interrogated or what was his fault” claimed Moushumi.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has ordered a magisterial inquiry on the issue and said that the “state government is very much strict with its stand in maintaining law and order situation of the state”. Sources said, three parallel inquiries will run on the particular matter - Police inquiry, human rights and magisterial inquiry. However, the deceased left two of his child, his wife and parents.
Earlier in November last year, Cyber Crime Unit of Tripura Police Crime Branch arrested four people comprising of two Turkish nationals – Hakan Zanburkan, Fettah Aldemir and two Bangladeshi nationals – Md. Hannan and Md Rafiqul Islam from Belgharia in West Bengal for skimming millions through ATM skimming and ATM card cloning. The police believe Sushanta provided logistic support for the fraud in Tripura.
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