Police get four days to grill five in case over Japanese woman’s ‘murder’ in Dhaka

A Dhaka court has placed five people on a four-day police remand in a murder case filed in connection with the ‘mysterious’ death of a Japanese woman in Dhaka.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 Nov 2015, 12:28 PM
Updated : 24 Nov 2015, 01:12 PM

Uttara East Police Station OC Abu Bakar, who is the investigating officer in the case, produced the arrested persons in the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday afternoon.

The five are Maruf, Rashed, Fakhrul, Jakir Patwari and Dr Bimal Chandra Shil. The court also rejected their plea for bail.

Court Police Sub-Inspector Ujir Ali told bdnews24.com that Hiyori Miyeta, in her 60s, had been killed on Oct 29.

“The Japanese woman’s purse and passport were recovered from the accused. They must be interrogated to solve the murder mystery,” he said.

Defence lawyer KM Furkan Ali, however, said police had failed to submit in court the list of evidence they claimed to have found on the accused.

Miyeta is said to have been living in Bangladesh illegally and was involved in the readymade garment business, police say.

On Nov 19, a Japanese embassy official filed a general diary with the Uttara East Police Station, saying Miyeta was missing for three weeks.

Police later learnt that she had died on Oct 29 and was buried at the city corporation graveyard in Banani.

They had lodged a murder case against six men after a preliminary investigation into her death and ‘secret’ burial, OC Abu Bakar said earlier.

Later, he said the five arrested men had been picked up during raids in different districts including Dhaka and Lakshmipur.

But he threw no light on whether the men had known the Japanese national.

Media reports say Miyeta lived alone in a hotel in Uttara, keeping in touch with her mother over the phone.

She had last spoken to her on Oct 26 and had been missing since then.

The reports, quoting police, said Miyeta had not renewed her visa despite its expiry in 2006.

Her friends found an apartment for her in Bashundhara Residential Area two months ago after she failed to pay her hotel dues.

The accused told police the lady had died in that apartment of diarrhoea on Oct 29.

Her local friends told police they had not taken her to hospital because she was living in Bangladesh illegally, but had informed her mother.

A police media briefing on the case scheduled for Monday was cancelled due to “unavoidable” reasons.