Mohammad Anwarul Azim Anar, the Awami League MP who went missing in Calcutta, was murdered and his body was cut into pieces and mixed with turmeric powder before being disposed of, the chief of the detective branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Mohammad Harun-Or-Rashid, said on Thursday.
Officers of the criminal investigation department (CID) in Calcutta said on Thursday the body was yet to be traced.
Harun-Or-Rashid said Akhtaruzzaman Shahin, a US-based businessman from Dhaka, was the mastermind behind Anar’s murder and had hired the killers.
The CID has arrested a butcher, brought from Mumbai by the other accused, in connection with the MP’s murder. Jihad Hawladar, 24, the butcher, was an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh, a CID officer said.
“He is from Barakpur in Bangladesh,” the officer said.
“He arrived in Calcutta two months ago. He said that on orders from Shahin, he and other four Bangladeshis killed the MP in a Rajarhat flat. Then they deskinned the body, removed all the flesh and minced it to destroy the identity. Then they cut the bones into small pieces and put everything into packets,” the officer said.
The packets were then taken out and disposed of in Calcutta, the officer said.
Earlier, the Bangladesh police arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in the murder of the 54-year-old MP from Jhenaidah-4.
“The plot was hatched a few months back in the Gulshan area of Dhaka. The plan was that the (Anwarul’s) murder would be carried out in a foreign land and in a manner that the body would remain untraceable,” Harun-Or-Rashid said. “Anwarul was murdered on May 13, within half an hour of stepping into the apartment.”
CID officers said Shahin, who is suspected to have paid Rs 5 crore to the hired killers and fled to Kathmandu, had a business dispute with Anar over non-payment of dues.
“Since Anar and Shahin were friends, the businessman was aware of the MP’s plan to visit Calcutta and accordingly, hatched the murder plan,” a CID officer said.
A CID team has reached Dhaka to investigate the murder.
The police in Calcutta have seen CCTV footage of the MP entering a housing complex in Rajarhat with three others.
Harun-Or-Rashid said in Dhaka that most of the body parts of the MP were put into bags and handed to one of the murder accused and a cab driver, who was waiting near a public washroom outside the Rajarhat housing complex.
The cab driver was not aware of the crime, he said.
“Turmeric was used to ensure no one had any doubt about the chunks of flesh if they got exposed. After the murder was executed, the assassins began returning to Bangladesh, the first lot by May 15,” he said.
According to CID sources, suspected blood stains have been found inside the apartment in Rajarhat, near the bed where the MP was allegedly killed.
Amidst search for Anar’s body, the CID has identified three hotels — two in the New Market area and another on VIP Road in Baguiati — where the alleged assassins had put up.
CID officers said seven hired killers, including a woman, had been involved in the murder of the MP. The woman, the officers said, had accompanied businessman Shahin to Calcutta on April 30. The two allegedly checked into the rented apartment in Rajarhat.
The names of several suspects have emerged during the investigation by multiple agencies.
Sayed Amanullah, who has a murder case against him in Bangladesh, allegedly played a crucial role in the MP’s murder, CID sources said.
Two others — Shilanti Rahman, who is allegedly an associate of Shahin, and Faizal Ali — were also part of the execution plan, said a CID officer.
Rahman is one of the three arrested by the Bangladesh police.
“A day after the murder in the flat on May 13, Rahman and Amanullah left the apartment. Faizal was the last to leave. He left on May 18,” said a CID officer.
The others who came from Bangladesh stayed in a hotel on Sudder Street, he said.
CID officers on Thursday questioned the app cab driver who was hired to ferry Anar from the Baranagar house of his friend Gopal Biswas to the Rajarhat apartment.
