MP Azim Murder: DB recreates crime scene in Kolkata
The DMP's Detective Branch team, now in Kolkata to investigate the murder of Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar, yesterday reconstructed the crime scene based on information from suspect Jihad Howlader.
Jihad, a 24-year-old butcher by profession, now on 12-day remand in West Bengal CID custody, dismembered the lawmaker's body into 80 pieces.
Yesterday, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's DB team, led by its chief Harun Or Rashid, took Jihad to the flat in Kolkata's New Town where the crime was committed nearly two weeks ago.
Investigators from India and Bangladesh revealed that Azim entered the flat at 2:51pm on May 13 and was killed there within the next half an hour.
According to Jihad, the MP's body was lying in a bedroom for several hours.
"After sunset, four people moved his body to the toilet, and Jihad began dismembering it. The killers purchased a large quantity of cotton to clean up the bloodstains," said a West Bengal CID official requesting anonymity.
Cotton was also used to suppress the sound of chops, according to another CID source.
After vising the flat, the DB team along with Jihad went to a swamp at Polerhat in Kolkata. Jihad told investigators that he and his associates got off a taxi about a kilometre away from the swamp and walked there to dump the parts of the body.
The visiting detectives could not make any attempt to recover the parts due to incessant rain yesterday. They cross checked the information provided by suspect Amanullah alias Shimul Bhuiyan during the interrogation in Bangladesh, with Jihad in India.
Amanullah, an extremist leader from the Khulna-Jashore region, was in charge of the killing, said investigations. He is now on eight-day remand in DB custody.
Speaking to The Daily Star, DB chief Harun yesterday said the killers cheered after murdering Azim.
"We are comparing the information that we have gleaned from the arrested suspects in Bangladesh with that of Jihad. Most of the information compared so far has been found to be true," he added.
Azim went to Kolkata on May 12 and stayed at his friend Gopal Biswas's house for a night. He went out the following day saying that he would visit a doctor. Gopal later received texts from Azim's mobile phone saying that he was going to Delhi and that he did not need to call him.
On May 22, India and Bangladesh police confirmed that the lawmaker was murdered.
FARMHOUSE IN JHENAIDAH
Aktaruzzaman, the alleged mastermind, sold off his cattle, goats, and ducks, from his farm in Jhenaidah over the last one and a half months, said locals.
Most of the cattle were sold before Aktaruzzaman left for Kolkata on April 30. After the murder, he asked the farm manager to sell all goats and send him the money, locals told The Daily Star.
Aktaruzzaman, locally known as Shaheen, probably feared that his properties might be looted if the murder came to light, locals speculated.
He has a farmhouse at Elangi Bazar, around 5km away from Kotchandpur town, according to Shahiduzzaman, chairman of Kotchandpur Municipality and also the elder brother of Aktaruzzaman.
Asked about his brother selling off his livestock, he said, "There were some bulls, goats, and ducks there, but the farm was never running commercially."
[Our correspondent in New Delhi contributed to this report.]
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