Dhaka: A Dhaka court on Sunday sentenced Helal Uddin, former Khilgaon Police Station officer-in-charge, to three years’ imprisonment for torturing Dhaka University student Abdul Kadar in police custody three years back.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Alamgir Kabir Raj pronounced the judgment. The court also fined him Tk 10,000, in default, to suffer three months more in jail.

Besides, it issued a warrant for his arrest as he was tried in absentia.

According to the case statement, a team of plain-clothes police from the Khilgaon Police Station hit Kadar with sticks at Segunbagicha in the early hours of 16 July 2011 while he was returning to his dormitory, Fazlul Huq Hall, from a relative's house at Eskaton.

When he asked about the reason for the beating and introduced himself as a DU student, they became furious and took him to the police station.

Later, OC Helal Uddin took him to his room and forced him to admit to various crimes he had never committed. The OC also injured him on the back, legs and other parts of his body. At one stage, the OC made a stab wound to Kadar’s left leg with a sharp machete.

Then, police lodged two cases against him-one for robbery and another for possession of an illegal firearm-with the police station while he was shown arrested in another false case filed with Mohammadpur Police Station for carjacking.

Teachers and students of DU and people from different walks of life reacted sharply to the police torture on Kadar, then a master’s student of biochemistry.

Kadar was freed on bail on 3 August 2011 after 18 days of his detention. Later, a court acquitted him from the charges.

On 23 January 2012, Kadar filed a case with Khilgaon Police Station against its former OC Helal Uddin for torturing him.

On 26 March the same year, police submitted charge sheet before the court against OC Helal in the case.