A lump of soft material, which police suspect could be the “flesh and hair” of Bangladeshi MP Mohammad Anwarul Azim Anar, was on Tuesday extracted from the sewage pipe of the Rajarhat apartment where he was allegedly killed on May 13, CID officers said.

The detective branch chief of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Mohammad Harun-Or-Rashid, said late on Tuesday that a “considerable quantity” of flesh and hair had been found inside the sewage pipe.

Samples will be sent to a forensic laboratory to check its composition and for a DNA test to ascertain whether those were parts of the MP’s body.

“We have requested MP Saheb’s daughter to come to Calcutta for the DNA test,” said Harun, who has been in Calcutta since Sunday.

Till now the police have not found any part of the MP’s body despite multiple searches in a pond where a portion of the body was suspected to have been disposed of.

The Bengal CID on Tuesday broke the sewage pipeline of the Rajarhat apartment following a request from the Bangladesh police, who are investigating the murder jointly with the CID.

Earlier on Tuesday, Harun said they had requested the CID to break the septic tank and the sewage pipe, which connects the apartment where the MP was allegedly killed and the tank.

At the request of the Bangladesh police, a search operation was also carried out at Hathishala lake, which adjoins the Rajarhat apartment complex.

“We have requested the CID to search two new locations — the Hathishala lake, which is next to the Rajarhat building, and the sewage tank that is linked to the commode of the apartment,” Harun said on Tuesday.

Harun and his team of officers visited a shopping mall in New Town on Tuesday morning. Sources in the investigation team said Anar, after he had left his friend’s house in Baranagar in a Honda City, had changed cars in front of this mall.

“The mall’s CCTV footage had thrown the first lead in detecting the car that dropped the MP at the Rajarhat apartment on May 13,” said a CID officer.

Till Tuesday, all search operations for the body or body parts had drawn a blank.

Asked if the absence of the body or body parts would dilute the case, Harun said that even if the body was not recovered, the investigation would rely on “digital evidence and the statement of the witnesses”.

“We already have the prime suspect in our custody. We have got a lot of information from him and the woman (Celeste Rahman, who had accompanied the alleged mastermind). And now after interrogating Jihad, who is in Bengal CID’s custody, we are armed with information. The statements of the witnesses and the accused match completely with the digital evidence we have in hand,” Harun said.

Jihad Howaladar, a butcher, was allegedly part of the gang that killed the MP. He also allegedly chopped the body into small pieces.

Harun said the police had digital evidence that the MP had entered the apartment but never came out.

“There is digital evidence. A man entered the house. But he did not come out. Later, suspects are seen coming out with some bags. We will correlate the digital evidence with the witness statements, and with the help of logical and jurisprudent discretion, we will proceed further,” he said.

According to sleuths, Jihad and another accused had left the apartment with a trolley bag containing the MP’s body parts. Those were allegedly disposed of in a water body at Krishnamati village in Bhangar, South 24-Parganas.