A Dhaka court has ordered to provide bank statements of Aktaruzzaman, prime suspect in the killing of Jhenaidah-4 constituency MP Md Anwarul Azim, and nine others. Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions judge As-Shams Jaglul Hossain passed the order Monday.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court’s public prosecutor Taposh Kumar Pal told Prothom Alo that the police appealed to the court seeking bank statements of the 10 persons involved in the killing of Jhenaidah-4 constituency. The court granted the plea.
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit will provide the transaction history of these bank accounts to the detective branch (DB) police, the investigating agency in the case, as per the court order.
Meanwhile, Shilasti Rahman, who was arrested by the DB police in connection with the killing, is recording the case deposition with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court today.
Sub-inspector Jalal Uddin of the crime and information department of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) confirmed the development to Prothom Alo.
According to the police and relevant sources in the court, the DB police produced Shilasti and two other accused before the court after questioning them for eight days on remand and appealed to the court to question them on remand again. The court granted the plea and put the accused on remand for five more days.
Later, the police produced Shilasti before the court and appealed to record the case deposition under section 164 on Monday. Shilasti started recording the case deposition with the court in the afternoon.
The other two arrestees in Dhaka are Syed Amanullah (Shimul Bhuiyan) and Faisal Ali. They both are in police custody now.
MP Anwarul Azim went to Kolkata for treatment on 12 May. He was killed in a flat in the New Town area of Kolkata. The Kolkata Police analysed the CCTV footage of the flat and shared the information they got with the Bangladesh Police.
Based on the intelligence report from Kolkata, the DB police arrested Bhuiyan and two others. They get various detailed information regarding killing Anwarul and disposing of the body.
Officials relevant to the investigation say after the killing, the killer cut Anwarul’s body into pieces and disposed of them in trolley bags. Some of the body parts were dumped into a canal in Kolkata.
Earlier, lawmaker Azim’s daughter Mumtarin Ferdaus lodged a case with the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station on the allegation of abducting his father on 22 May. The three accused were later shown arrested in this case.
US expat Akteruzzaman alias Shaheen devised the plan for the assassination of MP Anwarul Azim in Kolkata. He hired the killers with Tk 50 million. Shimul Bhuiyan was a major part of the killing. He is from the Damodar Union in Phultala upazila of Khulna. He is the chief of the banned extremist organisation – Purba Banglar Communist Party.
Apart from these three, two others named Jihad Howlader and Md Siyam Hossain have been arrested from Dhaka and Kathmandu respectively in connection with the incident.
Police said Akteruzzaman left the country for Kathmandu within a week of the killing. Later, he moved to the US through Dubai.