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Another Jhenaidah Awami League leader is also remanded in MP Anar murder case
Published : 13 Jun 2024, 08:31 PM
A Dhaka court has granted police eight days to interrogate Jhenaidah Awami League General Secretary Shaidul Karim Mintu over the murder of ruling party MP Anwarul Azim Anar.
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Tofazzal Hossain passed the order on Thursday.
Detective Branch Assistant Commissioner Mahfuzur Rahman, also the investigation officer of the case, presented Mintu to the court and pleaded for a 10-day remand, according to SI Jalal Uddin, the general registrar of court police.
A bail application was filed for the accused.
At the hearing, Mintu claimed: "I am innocent and a victim of political revenge. In my 46 years in politics, I have no murder record. Today, I am the district Awami League's general secretary, having risen from Chhatra League politics. Now, my crime is I sought party nomination."
"I was arrested during 1/11 and 13 times during the anti-Ershad movement. I have always done politics for the people, but now I'm being framed for political reasons," he added.
After the hearing, SI Jalal said the court rejected the bail application and remanded Mintu in police custody.
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 a flat 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.
Detectives also arrested another individual in 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 flat 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.
Mintu was widely reported to have been arrested on Tuesday after his name came up in the murder case.
Mintu was summoned for questioning based on information obtained from Shimul Bhuiyan, who was arrested in connection with the Anar murder case, and another Jhenaidah Awami League leader, Kazi Kamal Ahmed Babu, also known as Gas Babu, Additional Commissioner Harunor Rashid said on Wednesday.
If Mintu’s response is found unsatisfactory, legal action will be taken, he said.
Anar’s daughter Mumtarin Ferdoush Dorin filed a case at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station on May 22 after the law enforcers and ministers confirmed her father’s death in the neighbouring country.
Mumtarin told reporters that she did not name any suspect in the case.
Police arrested Babu on Jun 6, relief and social welfare secretary of the ruling party’s Jhenaidah district unit, on suspicion of involvement in the murder.
The court remanded Babu in police custody for seven days. Meanwhile, Mintu was remanded in the same incident by the DB police.
