Sunamganj: A man in his twenties has reportedly committed suicide after he had been accused of stealing about Tk 70 thousand from a store at Tahirpur in Sunamganj.

Police said Manik Mia, son of Sattar Mia, was taken to the Sunamganj Sadar Hospital after he had taken poison, but he died at about 1:00am on Thursday while undergoing treatment.

Father of the victim complained that his son was bullied and forced to take his own life after being ‘wrongly accused of stealing from the store’ at Badaghat Dighirpar village.

Villagers said unidentified persons broke into the store of Shafiqul Islam and went away with about Tk 70,000 on Tuesday night.

Shafiqul went to a quack and sought her help in finding out the true thief.

The quack gave him some rice blowing with sacred recital. He called some suspects and gave them the rice to chew it.

Manik Mia failed to chew the rice and eventually he was picked up as the man behind the theft.

Shafiqul and his people beat up Manik and asked him to return the money he had stolen.

Local business association general secretary Masuk Mia was present at that time. They asked Manik to attend arbitration for Wednesday.

Manik went his home and tried to commit suicide by taking poison. His family took him to hospital.

Tahirpur police officer-in-charge Nandan Kanti Dhar admitted that Manik was forced to chew the rice and he then committed suicide. He, however, said that no one, till filing the report, lodged any complaint with the police station.

Shop owner Shafiqul said he forced Manik, Sagar, Khurshid, Nazim and Russel to chew the rice to find out the perpetrator.

‘I don’t know whether he took poison, but he was charged in front of many people in the market,’ he added.