KOLKATA: An airline boarding pass bearing the name “Celesty Rahman” and the arrest of a butcher allegedly hired to mutilate the body of murdered Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar on Friday gave investigators clues to a sinister plot that possibly involved honey-trapping the victim into visiting an apartment in Kolkata’s New Town on May 13 and killing him within 15 minutes of his arrival.
Bengal Police deployed drones, underwater cameras and divers for over two hours in Polerhat, off Bhangar along the city’s eastern suburbs, but failed to trace the MP’s mutilated body parts. What they found instead were tell-tale signs of a murder most foul at the crime scene – 600gm of plastic bags, toilet paper rolls, wet and dry tissue, gloves, the boarding pass with a Bangladeshi woman’s name, and a comb with some strands of hair.
Bangladesh, India may seek Interpol help to nab MP murder kingpin
Bangladeshi butcher Jihad Hawladar (24), who was arrested by Bengal Police’s special task force, is the first suspect in the MP murder case to be taken into custody in India.
Jihad, who hails from Barakpur in Bangladesh’s Khulna district, was arrested in Bengal’s Bongaon on Thursday and handed over to CID, which is handling the case. Police suspect Celesty, who is also a Bangladesh citizen, asked Azim to meet her at the New Town apartment. CCTV footage of Azim being escorted in by Celesty is part of the body of evidence along with the boarding pass in her name. Celesty is among the three people arrested in Bangladesh earlier this week. The others are Shimul Bhuiyan Aman, alias Amanullah Syed, member of a banned Left-wing organisation in that country, and Tanvir Bhuiyan.
Besides the trio, others present in the apartment at the time of the crime have been identified as Siam, Faisal, Mostafiz and Jihad, the butcher. Siam, Faisal and Mostafiz are on the run.
According to Indian and Bangladeshi sleuths, the murder was planned by Md Akhtaruzzaman alias Shaheen, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin. The latter paid the hired killers 5 crore Bangladeshi taka, rented the New Town flat on April 30, and arranged for everyone to converge there to kill his one-time associate and friend Azim. He returned to Bangladesh three days before the murder, leaving the others to execute the plan.
CID said Jihad the butcher confessed to doing Shaheen’s bidding. “He, along with four Bangladeshi nationals, smothered and killed the MP. The butcher dismembered the body and stuffed it into multiple plastic bags to take these out of the flat. The accused used various modes of transport to dispose of the body parts in and around Kolkata.”
Shaheen fled to Nepal when the MP’s murder became public, and is suspected to have travelled to Dubai and then to another country. Bangladesh and India are likely to seek Interpol’s help to nab him. Jihad was produced in a court in Barasat on the outskirts of Kolkata and remanded in police custody. A four-member team from police and security wings of India arrived in Bangladesh visited the detective branch office on Minto Road in Dhaka to interrogate the trio arrested there.
Mumtarin Ferdoush Dorin, daughter of Jhenaidah-4 lawmaker Azim, said in Dhaka on Friday that the motive for the murder could only be ascertained when all the culprits were arrested.
Bengal Police deployed drones, underwater cameras and divers for over two hours in Polerhat, off Bhangar along the city’s eastern suburbs, but failed to trace the MP’s mutilated body parts. What they found instead were tell-tale signs of a murder most foul at the crime scene – 600gm of plastic bags, toilet paper rolls, wet and dry tissue, gloves, the boarding pass with a Bangladeshi woman’s name, and a comb with some strands of hair.
Bangladesh, India may seek Interpol help to nab MP murder kingpin
Bangladeshi butcher Jihad Hawladar (24), who was arrested by Bengal Police’s special task force, is the first suspect in the MP murder case to be taken into custody in India.
Jihad, who hails from Barakpur in Bangladesh’s Khulna district, was arrested in Bengal’s Bongaon on Thursday and handed over to CID, which is handling the case. Police suspect Celesty, who is also a Bangladesh citizen, asked Azim to meet her at the New Town apartment. CCTV footage of Azim being escorted in by Celesty is part of the body of evidence along with the boarding pass in her name. Celesty is among the three people arrested in Bangladesh earlier this week. The others are Shimul Bhuiyan Aman, alias Amanullah Syed, member of a banned Left-wing organisation in that country, and Tanvir Bhuiyan.
Besides the trio, others present in the apartment at the time of the crime have been identified as Siam, Faisal, Mostafiz and Jihad, the butcher. Siam, Faisal and Mostafiz are on the run.
According to Indian and Bangladeshi sleuths, the murder was planned by Md Akhtaruzzaman alias Shaheen, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin. The latter paid the hired killers 5 crore Bangladeshi taka, rented the New Town flat on April 30, and arranged for everyone to converge there to kill his one-time associate and friend Azim. He returned to Bangladesh three days before the murder, leaving the others to execute the plan.
CID said Jihad the butcher confessed to doing Shaheen’s bidding. “He, along with four Bangladeshi nationals, smothered and killed the MP. The butcher dismembered the body and stuffed it into multiple plastic bags to take these out of the flat. The accused used various modes of transport to dispose of the body parts in and around Kolkata.”
Shaheen fled to Nepal when the MP’s murder became public, and is suspected to have travelled to Dubai and then to another country. Bangladesh and India are likely to seek Interpol’s help to nab him. Jihad was produced in a court in Barasat on the outskirts of Kolkata and remanded in police custody. A four-member team from police and security wings of India arrived in Bangladesh visited the detective branch office on Minto Road in Dhaka to interrogate the trio arrested there.
Mumtarin Ferdoush Dorin, daughter of Jhenaidah-4 lawmaker Azim, said in Dhaka on Friday that the motive for the murder could only be ascertained when all the culprits were arrested.