Family buries Rajshahi laborer after police decline post-mortem over disputed death cause
A 25-year-old construction worker in Rajshahi’s Godagari upazila was buried Tuesday after a 22-hour delay, as local residents and family members disputed the official cause of death. While the victim, Shaon Ali, was interred without an autopsy, his relatives insist that his death was the result of a physical assault by neighbors rather than the medical complications cited in his death certificate.
Shaon Ali passed away on Monday afternoon while receiving treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. His death certificate lists the causes as dengue fever, cardiogenic shock, and sepsis. Because the document did not classify the death as a police matter, local authorities declined to conduct a post-mortem examination, prompting a standoff that left the body unburied for nearly a full day.
The victim’s wife, Adori Begum, claims her husband’s health declined following two separate attacks on June 30 and July 1. In a written complaint filed with the Godagari police on July 2, she alleged that Shaon was assaulted by three neighbors—identified as Rana, Mahabul Islam, and Rina Begum—following a dispute over money. After the initial assault, Shaon was briefly hospitalized before returning home, though his condition failed to improve. He was readmitted on July 17 with a high fever, eventually succumbing to his condition early this week.
Following Shaon’s death on Monday, villagers held his body in anticipation of a police investigation and a formal autopsy. However, when officers failed to arrive despite pleas from the family, the community proceeded with the burial on Tuesday morning to prevent the body from decomposing. Neighbors expressed deep frustration with the lack of police intervention, arguing that an autopsy was the only way to establish the true cause of death.
Godagari Police Station Officer-in-Charge Atiqur Rahman maintained that the department could not intervene because the death certificate did not indicate a criminal case and the patient was not documented as a trauma victim upon his second hospital admission. Regarding the initial assault complaint filed by the wife, the officer stated he had no immediate knowledge of the report, noting that it had been filed approximately 20 days ago.
The family of the accused, Mahabul Islam and his relatives, have reportedly abandoned their home, which remains locked. Efforts to reach the accused for comment were unsuccessful, as their phones were powered off. The victim's family continues to demand a formal investigation into the alleged assault, asserting that the medical complications leading to Shaon's death were compounded by the trauma he suffered during the attacks.
