Police have denied allegations that they are trying to save reserved seat MP Pinu Khan’s son who is accused of double murder.
Published : 14 Jun 2015, 07:21 PM
AL MP’s son Rony fired from his gun on getting stuck in slight traffic snarl, police claim
Awami League MP Pinu Khan’s son arrested over double murders, hunt on for three others
Bakhtiar Alam Rony was produced in court and sent to prison on Saturday after interrogation. His bail hearing is scheduled on June 16.
State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan said Rony will be held accountable for his actions even though he was an MP’s son.
Pinu Khan is also general secretary of Mahila Awami League, the ruling party’s woman wing.
But the report police submitted to court, after questioning Rony for four days, did not say that he shot two people.
Auto-rickshaw driver Yakub Ali and rickshaw-puller Abdul Hakim were killed in a random firing from a black Land Cruiser Prado at 1:45am at Eskaton on Apr 14.
Rony is said to have fired on them while ‘on drugs’.
“The post-remand report submitted by police detectives claims that Bakhtiar Alam Rony has divulged significant information about the firing and murders,” said Mahmudur Rahman, registrar at Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court.
“But it doesn’t say that Rony is the one who fired the shots and killed them.”
The investigating officer also did not file a request to extract a confession from Rony.
Police were working professionally to investigate the ‘mystery behind this clue-less event’, said Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam against allegations that they were trying to save the ruling party leader’s son.
“We are working independently in this case. No one is pressurising us.”
Police did not consider who an accused was related to, he claimed. “He’s (Rony) just another (suspected) killer to police.”
“It doesn’t matter if he is related to an MP or someone else, no one will escape justice,” the state minister for home earlier told reporters at a programme in Dhaka.
The case filed by rickshaw-puller Abdul Hakim’s mother two days after the incident said shots haphazardly fired from a white microbus killed her son and auto-rickshaw driver Yakub Ali.
But police later learned that it was a black Land Cruiser Prado, and Pinu Khan’s son Rony and several others were inside.
“Those who first filed the case heard about the white microbus from witnesses in the area. But police used multiple tactics to find out that it was in fact a black Prado,” said Joint Commissioner Islam.
The vehicle was registered to Pinu Khan and police planned to seize it for investigation, he said.
Detective Branch arrested Rony and the vehicle’s driver Imran Fakir on May 31 for their suspected involvement in the killings.
The next day, Rony admitted to firing the shots from his licensed gun during primary investigation, the case’s investigating officer DB Sub-Inspector Deepak Kumar had said.
“He fired the weapon because he was irritated after he got stuck in slight traffic.”
“Rony fired shots from the vehicle at night, his driver confessed in court. At first three people were inside. One person was dropped off before the incident. Police are looking for them,” said Islam.
On Jun 1, the driver made a confession before court after their arrest but Rony did not. The court then granted police four days to grill him.