Mohammad Belal of Arambagh in Chattogram surrendered to the police during the day and at night, was killed in a gunfight while accompanying police in a weapons recovery drive.

Police claim Belal was killed by one his cohorts but the family of the deceased says that he surrendered because he wanted to come back from crime to a normal life.

Despite taking Tk 45000 bribe from the family, the police did not produce Belal at court, kept him at the police station and then killed him in a crossfire, allege the family.

Belal’s sister Minu Akhter says: “they killed my brother without giving him a chance to come back to normal life; my brother surrendered at the advice of the deputy commissioner.”

They also took Tk. 45000 after surrendering, she added.

Belal’s elder son, Sajib says: “of the 13 cases against my father, there wasn’t any warrant; all the cases were in the process of being dismissed.”

When my father surrendered, the second officer of the police station, Nur Uddin, took Tk. 45000 and previously, the former OC of Khulshi thana took Tk 500,000 with threats of the crossfire.

When asked, the second officer refuted the allegation of bribe-taking, and said: “This is completely false; I had no conversation with either Belal or his family after the surrender.”

OC Pranab Chowdhury says: “we kept Belal at the thana to carry out more questioning; he surrendered in the afternoon and informed of a stash of hidden weapons in Jalalabad; when we went to recover them, he was shot by one of his accomplices.”