Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police of Rajshahi Range Khan Sayed Hasan took the action yesterday after conducting an investigation into police brutality following the publication of a photograph and caption in The Daily Star yesterday.

The suspended policemen are OC Shamsul Haque, SIs Monjur Rahman, Shariful Islam (2) and Abdul Karim and constable Nurul Islam.

The OC was closed to the DIG range office of Rajshahi while the four others were closed to Bogra Police Lines.

DIG Khan called a press conference at Sadar Police Station yesterday afternoon, where he spelt out the punitive measure.

The OC was accused of utter negligence of duty, inefficiency and misbehaviour, said a press release from the police headquarters yesterday.

Moreover, the acts of the four other police personnel (as seen in the newspaper photo) have made the image of the police questionable, the release added.

A two-tola gold necklace was found from Ratan Kumar, who police tortured after hanging from the ceiling at Sadar Police Station on Thursday, without showing him arrested as a suspect in a 25-tola gold theft case, DIG Khan said.

On January 25, SI Karim picked up Ratan in Upasharhar area for his suspected link with gold stealing but the police showed him arrested on Friday on the same charge.

Ratan yesterday confessed to his involvement in the theft to journalists present at the police station.

Ratan, a resident of Dalpatti in Bogra town, is also a suspected heroin peddler, police said.