Police are yet to identify the killers of Doctor Narayan Chandra Dutta Nitai but they assume that he was a victim of robbery.
Nitai’s relatives, however, claim that it was a murder.
Nitai, assistant professor of the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH), was stabbed to death by unknown criminals at his quarters in the NIDCH compound at Mohakhali in the capital early Thursday.
The 47-year-old physician was also an executive councillor of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) and a central committee member of Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad.
Bhuiyan Mahbub Hossain, officer-in-charge of the police station, told The Daily Star that the case was handed over to the Detective Branch (DB) of Police for investigation yesterday.
Before the handover, Imdadul Islam, sub-inspector of Banani Police Station and the first investigation officer of the case, told The Daily Star that they were sure that Nitai was a victim of robbery.
Lucky Datta, wife of Nitai, however expressed doubts to The Daily Star.
“I asked my husband several times to take a transfer from NIDCH to another hospital and leave the doctors’ quarters as criminals had been threatening him over recruitments at NIDCH,” she added.
Bashir Ahmed, medical superintendent of NIDCH, said 55 class-III and class-IV employees had been appointed to the hospital recently.
Nitai’s younger brother Goutam Datta and Goutam’s wife Kona Datta got appointment as class-IV employees.
He said he knew nothing about Nitai having any disputes or being in trouble with the recruitments.
Pijush Biswas, BMA central councillor, said, “It seems that the criminals were familiar to Nitai. That is why they went to the first floor, where he was sleeping, instead of the ground floor.”
A colleague of Nitai requesting not to be named said some extortionists had been threatening Nitai.
“Nitai told me that he had been threatened several times for toll. He also told me that he had been feeling unsafe at the quarters due to lack of security measures in the residential area,” the colleague said.
Doctors of all public and private hospitals across the country would abstain from work between 11:00am and 1:00pm protesting the killing and demanding arrest and trial of the criminals. They would wear black badges too.
Emergency services at the hospitals would be out of the purview of this work abstention.
Leaders of BMA declared the programmes in a press briefing at the Jatiya Press Club Thursday.
Police has so far picked up four people in connection with the killing.
Meanwhile, the Rapid Action Battalion detained three but released them yesterday after interrogation.
-With The Daily Star input
