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Siam Hossain, one of the suspects in the murder of Jhenaidah MP Anwarul Azim Anar, has led police to ‘bones’ found in the Bagjola canal in West Bengal, according to Indian media reports.
Police say that forensic tests will be conducted to determine if these bones belong to the MP, reports bdnews24.com citing the Anandabazar.
West Bengal media outlets published news and pictures of the search on Sunday. Some publications even included photos of the bones found.
However, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) – the agency in charge of investigating Anar’s murder – has not made an official announcement of the bones being recovered.
According to Sangbad Protidin, based on the information received from Siam during the interrogation, the CID took him to the Bagjola canal on Sunday morning.
A DMG team of the Navy and the Kolkata police personnel also accompanied the CID. First, they searched the canal with divers. Later, several bones were recovered from a bush.
Anar, a three-time MP from Jhenaidah-4 and president of the Kaliganj Upazila unit of the Awami League went to India for medical treatment on May 11.
Initially, he stayed at the house of his friend and gold trader Gopal Biswas in Kolkata’s Baranagar. However, he went out one day and never came back.
Later, Gopal filed a GD at the local police station, triggering investigations in both countries. On the morning of May 22, Indian media reported that MP Anar had been murdered at an apartment in New Town.
Based on information provided by Indian police, detective police in Bangladesh arrested three suspects. They were also taken into remand for interrogation.
The three are Amanulla Sayeed alias Shimul Bhuiyan alias Shihab aka Fazl Mohammad Bhuiyan, 56, Tanvir Bhuiyan, 30, and Celesty Rahman, 22.
Detective police also arrested another individual from Jashore in connection with the murder.
The detainee, Saiful Alam Molla Member, is an associate of Shimul Bhuiyan, leader of the extremist outfit Purbo Banglar Communist Party, who has been arrested on murder charges.
Police said Anar’s childhood friend Shaheen, a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin, was the ‘mastermind’ behind the murder. The killing was carried out by extremist leader Amanulla aka Shimul. Anar went to the apartment rented by Shaheen for a meeting the day after he reached Kolkata. The criminals killed him there.
The CID in West Bengal arrested a butcher called Jihad Howlader, who admitted to chopping up Anar’s body for disposal under Shaheen’s orders. Four more Bangladeshis helped him commit the crime, he said.
A team of Indian detective police came to Bangladesh on May 24 and interrogated the three arrestees. Then a three-membered team from the Detective Branch of police in Bangladesh went to Kolkata on May 25. They interrogated butcher Jihad and took him along on an inspection of the Sanjeeva Gardens apartment where Anar was said to have been killed.
While the DB officers were in Kolkata, some pieces of flesh were recovered from the septic tank of the apartment building.
Those samples were sent to the central forensic lab for a DNA test. This test requires a sample from the blood relatives of the victim. Mumtarin Ferdoush Dorin, the daughter of MP Anar, is supposed to go to Kolkata to take part in DNA tests to determine whether the flesh belongs to her father.
The Indian foreign ministry said it would provide ‘full support’ to Bangladesh for investigation of Anar’s killing.
WHAT POLICE ARE SAYING ABOUT CASES
On the day that news of her father’s death spread, Dorin filed a case at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, saying her father had been abducted. A separate murder case was filed in Kolkata.
“India is investigating this murder and so are our police,” said Habibur Rahman, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. “The two countries will decide at one point and take their next steps. An investigation will be conducted where the incident occurred. And Bangladesh has laws that state that if a Bangladeshi commits a crime abroad, they can also be tried in Bangladesh.”
On Jun 4, after travelling to Nepal to seek Siam, DB chief Harun-or-Rashid said:
India is our friend. Our goals and India’s goals are at once the same and distinct. Investigation officials in two countries are working on the murder. We are exchanging various kinds of information with them.”
“There will be no issue if they hand Siam over to Indian police. Siam is close to the mastermind, Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen. If Siam is handed over to Indian police, he can play a key role in recovering evidence. We will also get a chance to interrogate him.”