Bangladesh court sends 3 accused to 8-day police custody over MP's murder in Kolkata

Three suspects were placed on an eight-day police remand by a Bangladeshi court on Friday due to their suspected involvement in the violent murder of Anwarul Azim Anar, a politician for the ruling Awami League, during his time in India.

On May 12, Anar, a three-time member of parliament from Bangladesh’s Jhenaidah-4 segment and the president of the Awami League’s Kaliganj sub-district unit, traveled personally to Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, for medical attention. On May 13, he vanished from Kolkata.

The Kolkata police claimed that circumstantial evidence suggested the MP was first killed by strangulation and then his body was dismembered and disposed of in several locations. There are still no visible remnants of his body or any body components.

Three people had been detained by Bangladesh Police in relation to his death. In front of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Dilruba Afroz Tithi on Friday, police presented the three accused, Tanvir, Shimul Bhuiyan, and Silisti Rahman, and requested a 10-day remand.

The three were placed on an eight-day police remand by the court following the hearing.

Bangladesh police claim that in order to avoid detection by law enforcement and enable the assassination of the lawmaker in Kolkata, Bhuiyan, the leader of the banned Purbo Banglar Communist Party, procured a phony passport and changed his name to Amanullah.

The murder was organized two to three months prior, with several meetings taking place at the homes of the mastermind and close friend of the MP, Aktaruzzaman Shahin, in the Gulshan and Bashundhara neighborhoods. Following the murder, officials reported that Akhtaruzzaman, an American citizen who was born in Bangladesh, went to Nepal.

On Thursday, a West Bengal CID team traveled to Bangladesh to question the three defendants.

Mahbubul Haque, the Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka, had earlier on May 23 set a deadline of July 4 for the submission of the investigative report in the case.

Mumtarin Ferdous Dorin, Anar’s daughter, filed the case with the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station on May 22.

According to a police officer in Kolkata, the West Bengal CID has detained a Bangladeshi national who works as a butcher in the state’s Bangaon area of the North 24 Parganas district on suspicion of being involved in Anar’s murder.

During questioning, the man acknowledged to the officer that he had assisted the other accused in slicing up the victim’s body and then disposing of the parts in various places.

According to the senior police officer, an initial investigation also revealed that the MP’s close friend Akhtaruzzaman, a US citizen, had given almost ₹ 5 crore to the perpetrators.

According to the MP, his friend owns an apartment in Kolkata and is most likely currently in the US.