A 36-year-old man, Emmanuel Borketey Boye, has allegedly committed suicide in the cells of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).

Boye allegedly wove his cell dress into a rope and used it to hang himself on Wednesday, June 25, 2008.

A brother of the deceased Mr Moses Bortey, told the Daily Graphic that he would comment on the matter only after a post-mortem examination had been conducted on the body.

But the BNI explained to the Daily Graphic that there had been no foul play, neither had the deceased been tortured.

A source toltd the Daily Graphic that the deceased had, since February 13, 2007, been facing two counts of forgery of documents and defrauding by false pretences in court.

It said the deceased had allegedly sold 30 plots of land at Borteyman to people, adding that the deceased allegedly collected GH¢19,000, a Toyota 4 Runner pick-up, a Daewoo saloon car and a Peugeot saloon car from those people, on the pre-text of selling the 30 plots of land to them.

According to the source, after collecting the money and the cars from the complainants, the deceased led them to Borteyman and showed them the 30 plots of land and the documents covering them.

"The complainants made checks at the Lands Commission and got to know that the documents had been forged and that the deceased had no title to the land in question," it said.

It explained that when the complainants, who had also collected money from other people to purchase the 30 plots, confronted the deceased, he allegedly promised to give them new plots at Dodowa, while he contested the other claimants to the Borteyman land in court.

Unfortunately, it said, the deceased went into hiding but he was arrested upon a tip-off.

The source said the deceased was arraigned before Circuit Court "4", presided over by Mrs Jennifer Dodoo, on February 16, 2007 on two counts of forgery of documents and defrauding by false pretences.

It said the deceased was admitted to bail on February 26, 2007 to be appearing before court but after a few appearances, he went into hiding again, following which a bench warrant was obtained for his arrest.

According to the source, Boye was arrested and put before court but he was granted bail again.

It noted that he went into hiding again and a second bench warrant was issued for his arrest on February 15, 2008.

It said based on the second warrant, Boye was arrested on June 24, 2008 at his hideout at Teshie-Nungua and was to be put before court the next day.

The source said in the morning of June 25, 2008 it was detected that Boye had committed suicide.

It explained that the BNI then called Boye's brother and the Homicide Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department to witness the incident for the police to take over the investigations.

It said the brother rather showed up at about 3.00 p.m. on the same day, by which time the police had taken the body to the mortuary.

Source: Daily Graphic