Several influential people might have played a part in the killing of Anwarul Azim Anar, who had started taking control of gold smuggling in Jhenaidah after becoming a lawmaker in 2014, say investigators.
Over the last few years, a couple of influential businessmen in Jhenaidah, and a political leader of Jashore, who are also involved in gold smuggling, got upset with Azim for his attempt to take full control of illegal gold trade.
"They might have been involved in the murder plot," one of the investigators told this correspondent on the condition of anonymity.
In a report submitted to a Dhaka court yesterday, the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said Aktaruzzaman, Azim's partner in gold smuggling, was the mastermind behind the murder of the Jhenaidah-4 MP.
Officers said once he is arrested, the names of others involved in the murder will be known. Aktaruzzaman, known as Shaheen Mia in his hometown Jhenaidah, asked Azim to go to Kolkata to meet him and made arrangements to kill the MP there.
The accused, a Bangladesh born US citizen, went to Kolkata on April 30 and rented a flat in the New Town area, says the report on the progress made by the investigators so far.
Aktaruzzaman asked his aide Amanullah, who was staying Kolkata at that time, to execute the plot to kill Azim at any cost.
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday placed suspects Amanullah, Celesty Rahman and Tanvir Bhuiyan on an eight-day remand.
Contacted, Abdul Ahad, deputy commissioner of the DB (Wari Division), said, "We will try to identify the other suspects by interrogating the arrestees. We have some clues that we will verify with the arrestees."
Azim went to Kolkata on May 12 and stayed the night at his friend Gopal Biswas's house. He left the next day, saying he had a doctor's appointment.
Gopal later received a couple of texts from Azim's mobile phone that said there was no need to call him. On Wednesday, India and Bangladesh police said the MP was murdered in a flat in New Town, Kolkata.
Aktaruzzaman, now on the run, and Azim used to run a gold smuggling racket until they fell out over money late last year and Azim kept a stash worth over Tk 100 crore to himself, according to intelligence and police officers.
Detectives said Gopal, a gold trader in West Bengal, used to buy smuggled gold from Azim.
When contacted by the newspaper yesterday, Gopal said he was never involved in gold trade. He was also unaware of the partnership between Azim and Aktaruzzaman.
Sources in Kolkata police said Azim's remains were dumped near a bridge over Hatishala Waste Canal and several police teams had been looking for it since Thursday night.
West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday arrested a 24-year-old Bangladeshi national named Jihad Hawladar, who used to live in Mumbai illegally and worked as a butcher.
A CID officer said Jihad admitted to smothering and killing the lawmaker along with four other Bangladeshis. He also told officers how he and the others dismembered the body.
"Jihad was brought to Kolkata two months ago by Aktaruzzaman," said the officer.
A court in Barasat placed him on a 12-day remand yesterday.
Jihad was probably the one who arranged a car and the triplex New Town flat for the other suspects, said an officer.
According to investigators in Dhaka, Celesty, one of the suspects, is a friend of Aktaruzzaman. She went to Kolkata with Aktaruzzaman on April 30 and returned with Amanullah on May 15.
Celesty, who is from Tangail, used to live at a flat in the capital's Uttara area.source: the daily star
