Police arrested five students including a former Chhatra League leader in connection with the lynching of a ‘mentally retarded’ man over suspected theft inside a dormitory of Dhaka University (DU).

Al Amin, sub inspector (SI) of Shahbagh police station, confirmed the matter saying that they arrested the students from Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall with the help of the university administration in the afternoon and took them to the police station.

The arrestees are former Chhatra League leader of Fazlul Huq hall unit Jalal Ahmed, also student of Physics department, Md Mottakin Sakin, student of Soil, Water and Environment Science, Mohammad Sumon Mia of Food and Nutrition Science Department, Al Hussain Sajjad, of Geography department and Ahsanullah.

Earlier, the DU authorities filed a case with the Shahbagh police station in this regard.

According to witnesses, the victim, Tofazzel, sneaked into the hall on Wednesday evening. Some students then caught and interrogated him about the theft of six mobile phone sets and wallets from the hall the previous day.

Under intense questioning, the man agreed to tell them about the real thieves if they give him something to eat.

The students fed him, but the man failed to disclose the names of thieves.

Then the angry students beat up the man for two hours starting from 10 pm, according to the witnesses.

When the proctorial team got informed about the matter, it went to the spot and took the severely injured Tofazzal to a hospital for treatment where the doctors declared him dead.

According to some students of DU, victim Tofazzal was a mentally unstable person.

Tofazzal hailed from Kathaltoli union of Pathorghata upazila of Barguna district and he lost his parents long ago.

The incident drew widespread criticism across the country and the DU authorities formed a seven member committee to investigate the incident.