A four-member committee formed by the Police Headquarters to probe the incident submitted its report yesterday. It found no evidence that the victims were robbers.
The probe, on the contrary, found negligence of duty on the part of Savar police, Additional Inspector General of Police Amir Uddin, also the chief of the committee, told a press briefing at the police HQ.
“During our investigation, nobody said that the six students killed and the other injured were robbers. Nor did we find any evidence to prove that.
“We recommended departmental actions against some personnel of Savar Police Station for their negligence of duty,” Amir Uddin said.
A one-member judicial probe body that submitted its report on September 8 determined that some officers of Savar Police Station were “involved in the killings”.
Early hours on July 18, a mob at Bardeshi village in Aminbazar beat six boys, all school and college students, dead and another injured in police presence taking them for robbers, witnesses and the lone survivor said.
The dead are Tipu Sultan of Tejgaon College, Towhidur Rahman Palash, Kamruzzaman Kanto and Ibrahim Khalil of Mirpur Bangla College; Shams Rahim Shamam of Maple Leaf International School, and Sitaf Jabi Munif of Bangladesh University of Business and Technology.
The next day, Abdul Malek, a sand trader of Aminbazar, filed a robbery case accusing the seven. On the same day, Savar police filed a murder case against 500 to 600 unnamed people of Bardeshi village.
Strangely, the police case too branded the victims as robbers. The case did not even mention that they were students although the police officer who filed the case talked to their parents and relatives and collected details before filing the case.
As the role of Savar police came under question, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker formed the four-member committee on July 21.
The three other members are Masud Karim, special superintendent (SS) of Special Branch, Sheikh Rezaul Haider, SS of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and Dhaka district Additional Superintendent of Police Sheikh Rafiqul Islam.
The 216-page report was submitted to the police HQ following an impartial investigation, said Amir Uddin, the additional IGP.
“We've investigated the police role, not the crimes. The Criminal Investigation Department is investigating both the cases now,” he added.
He, however, declined to comment on whether any robbery took place in the area that night.
A top official of the police HQ told The Daily Star the probe found that the robbery case filed by the sand trader was false.
It was lodged to hide the actual fact and save those who led the killing as well as the policemen who played a part in it, he added.
Eight policemen of Savar Police Station were closed on September 11, three days after the judicial probe report was submitted.
“Not only those eight policemen who were present on the spot, many other policemen of Savar Police Station were involved in covering up the incident,” said the police official seeking anonymity.