Death sparks mob violence, policeman injured
Agartala: A 38-year-old man, arrested in ATM hacking cases, allegedly committed suicide at a police station in West Tripura district on Sunday, sparking a mob attack in which a policeman sustained injuries and was admitted at Agartala Govt Medical College in critical condition.
Sushanta Ghosh, who was in police remand since Saturday, committed suicide inside the lavatory of the West Agartala Police Station, officer-in-charge Subrata Chakraborty said.
He was arrested from his residence at Lankamura on Saturday by sleuths of the cybercrime team and produced before a local court, which remanded him to two days’ police custody, the officer said.
“His body was found hanging inside the lavatory of the police station around 5 am. He went to the lavatory around 3.54 am, but did not come out. It came to the notice of a guard that he was missing and later found him hanging from the ceiling of the lavatory,” Chakraborty told reporters.
Sushanta was allegedly involved in an international racket that hacked 60 bank accounts in Tripura recently.
His name surfaced, following interrogation of four Turkish cybercriminals arrested in November last year for their role in ATM hacking cases here, the officer said.
Tripura Human Rights’ Organisation (THRO) demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident.
“We have the apprehension that it might be a case a custodial torture and death. Police might be trying to frame it as a case of hanging but we don’t trust them, so we demand a judicial enquiry into the incident,” THRO president Purushottam Roy Barman told reporters.
Meanwhile, tension erupted in the bordering vicinity of Agartala after news of Ghosh’s death began to spread. Ghosh was a small sweet shop owner and father of two children.
The agitated people of Sushanta’s village severely assaulted a constable of Tripura police intelligence identified as Asim Majumder at border Golchakkar of Ramnagar area who was shifted to Agartala Govt Medical College in a critical condition.
Meanwhile, the father of the deceased, Parimal Ghosh, lodged an FIR against DSP of Tripura police crime branch Nirdesh Deb with West Agartala police station charging him for murder his son in police custody and later hanging him in the police cell to hush up the crime.
Ghosh alleged that before arresting Sushanta, DSP Deb had summoned him in his office several times and harassed him.
Finally, when he was arrested and court allowed his police custody, allegedly DSP Deb had warned that he would kill him unless Sushanta confessed that he was involved in ATM cloning cases in Tripura.
Sushanta, a resident of bordering village Lankamura of Agartala was arrested on Saturday by crime branch of Tripura police in connection with ATM cloning case registered in November last year. He was arrested after recovery of bag from a pond located in the city outskirts followed by the interrogation of the four international conmen who had been arrested earlier in Kolkata. (Agencies)