Plan to dispose the body even before the killing

Although the police of Kolkata and Dhaka have confirmed the killing of Jhenaidah-4 constituency lawmaker Anwarul Azim alias Anar, his body has not been recovered yet. The Kolkata police arrested a person in connection with the incident. They also detained another for questioning.

The detective branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police is investigating the case in collaboration with the Kolkata police.

Sources relevant to the investigation say the killers had made a plan to hide the body before the killing. They bought trolley bags, machetes, bleaching powder, polythene and other necessary things for this.

After killing Anwarul in a flat at Sanjeeva Gardens in the New Town area of Kolkata on 13 May, the killers cut his body into pieces and disposed of it in trolley bags in phases. Some parts of it were dumped into a canal in Kolkata.

This information was emerged during questioning the three arrested persons in Dhaka and by analysing the CCTV footage of the flat rented for the killing.

According to a source in Kolkata, the CCTV footage shows some persons moving out with trolley bags. Already three of them have been arrested in Dhaka. The Kolkata police assume that the dismembered body was disposed of in this trolley bag.

The investigators say they are suspecting that another team helped to hide the body. They helped the killers to confuse the law enforcement agencies and the victim’s family by sending text messages from Anwarul’s phone from different places. However, the police are yet to identify them.

Meanwhile, additional commissioner (DB) of DMP Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid told the newspersons that Anwarul’s body was dismembered for disposal.

The DB chief felt that only parts of his body could be recovered. The killers had been looking for an opportunity to kill the Awami League man for a long time. The plan was finalised in two houses of the Gulshan and Bashundhara areas in the capital for over a month or two. They chose Kolkata for the killing to avoid getting caught.

The DB police arrested three persons after they returned to the country on suspicion of being involved in the murder on the basis of information provided by the Kolkata police. They were shown arrested on Thursday in an abduction case filed with the Shere-e-Bangla Nagar police station. Anwarul Azim’s daughter filed the case on the allegation of kidnapping her father on Wednesday.

The three arrestees are Amanullah (real name Shimul Bhuiyan), Shilasti Rahman and Tanvir Bhuiyan. The police found two other persons named Zihad and Siyam, who were also involved in the killing.

Prothom Alo’s Kolkata correspondent, Suvojit Bagchi said the Kolkata police have arrested a person named Siyam.

The West Bengal police are saying that Siyam played a big role in the disappearance of the body. He is being interrogated at the New Town police station. A certain Zubair drove the car used by Anwarul and his killers. He too is being questioned at the New Town police station. Kolkata police sources say Zubaier is an Indian citizen, but Siyam is from Bangladesh.

The police of Dhaka and Kolkata are jointly investigating the murder. The processes are underway to send a delegation of Bangladesh police to India for investigation. Meanwhile, a four-member delegation of Kolkata police reached Dhaka yesterday. They questioned the three arrestees at the DB office in the capital’s Minto road yesterday. They left the DB office at around 10:00 pm.

Speaking regarding this, DB police’s additional deputy commissioner Md Shahidur Rahman said, “We shared information with Kolkata police to unravel the mystery behind the killing of MP Anwarul. They questioned the arrestees based on the information they found in the investigation. We too are getting information from them.

Amanullah is one of the three who were arrested by the DB police from Dhaka. Police say he was hired for killing Anwarul Azim.

However, it was discovered later that his real name is Shimul Bhuiyan. He is an infamous terrorist and one of the top leaders of once terrorist outfit ‘Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML)’. He has around 25 cases against him, including murder.

After getting arrested in Dhaka, he introduced himself as Syed Amanullah. He went to Kolkata using a passport with this name. The passport was issued on 10 October 2019 from Dhaka.

Apart from that, there were reports of the arrest of another person named Faisal Ali alias Saji on Wednesday. However, he has not been arrested as yet, but police found evidence of him being involved in the crime. Besides, Shimul Bhuiyan’s nephew Tanvir Bhuiyan has been arrested. Arrestee Shilasti Rahman is from the Nagorpur area of Tangail.

According to the police, Anwarul Azim’s close friend Akataruzzaman is the mastermind behind the killing. He is a relative of Mizanur Rahman alias Tutul, top leader of another terrorist outfit Purba Banglar Communist Party (Lal Pataka)’.

Awami League lawmaker Anwarul Azim went to India on 12 May through the Darshana border in Chuadanga. Some eight days after that, police confirmed his death.

Speaking to the newspersons on Wednesday, Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said, “We are very near to identifying the killers of MP Anwarul Azim. Only the official announcement remains to be made, which will come only if the law enforcement agencies of both countries completely agree.”

*This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu