Rahim loses hearing after BCL beating

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leaders and activists allegedly beat up a fourth year student of Shaheed Suhrawardy College in the city on Monday when he protested against extra money being collected for filling up forms of their honours examination.

Bangladesh Chhatra League is the student wing of ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL).

“They [BCL men] beat me up so badly that I cannot hear anything now. I went to a private hospital where the physicians told me I would need long-term treatment,” said the victim, Rahim Farayezi, 27.

“I am not scared, by they beat me up badly. They also said they would hand me over to the police, saying that I was a member of Chhatra Shibir [student wing of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami]. Then they released me and told me not to go back. But I have exams,” he said.

Rahim told Prothom Alo that they [the candidates] deposited Tk 4,675 with the bank as exam fees.

The respective departments were t provide them with forms free of coast, but they had to collect these from BCL leaders at Tk 500 each, and that too without a receipt, said the victim.

He said he, along with several candidates, talked to the college principal Sheikh Abdul Kuddus about this, but the principal said he could do nothing.

Rahim Farayezi and a few other students then went to speak to the BCL leaders around 11:00am on Monday and an argument ensued. At one stage, the BCL men beat him up.

The principal said, “Only the departments are supposed to provide the students with the forms.”

Responding to the allegations of BCL men beating the victim, he said, “No one has filed any complaints. I was at the college till afternoon.”

College BCL president Sohel Rana denied the allegations, claiming that Farayezi probably had been beaten by outsiders and his organisation could not be held responsible for that.

He would resign from his post if any such misdeed is proven, he said.