Seema Chowdhury, a garment factory worker, who was arrested on the grounds of ''her suspicious movements along with a male friend'' according to the police, was lodged in the police station, then gang-raped. She was sent to prison, for her safety, but was found dead a few months later. There are allegations that in some instances the police have a hand in prolonging the detention in safe custody of women and girls because they use them for their sexual needs. Privacy of women prisoners and those in safe custody is routinely abused because of a shortage of women in the police force. Only 600 out of 90,000 police personnel are women, and they are deployed only in the urban areas.
Jails are hell holes, notoriously overcrowded and neglected.
Some 370 prisoners have been killed in police and judicial custody over a five-year period up to 1996. Prisoners get very bad food, but though those who have the money get their own supplies of food, clothing and other essentials from outside by bribing the jail administration. Ordinary people prefer to keep far away from the police even in times of need, advocate Abu Ahmed said. The Bangladesh Constitution assures protection to women, children and men. But the guardians of the law, the police, are routinely accused of violating human rights.