MP Anar murder: police find pieces of flesh in septic tank of Kolkata building

DNA tests will be needed to confirm if the pieces are from the MP’s body, police say

Police officers have found pieces of flesh in the septic tank of the apartment complex in Kolkata where Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar was murdered.

“Some pieces of flesh have been found in the septic tank of Sanjeeva Gardens. It cannot be confirmed without DNA tests if they are from MP Anar’s body,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman told bdnews24.com on Tuesday evening.

Habibur said he had learnt about the discovery from Detective Branch officials currently conducting the investigation in India.

After arresting three suspects, police in Bangladesh said the MP had been killed in a Kolkata apartment after travelling to India for treatment.

Citing the suspects, they said the assailants chopped Anar’s body into small pieces and disposed of them in different locations.

The mastermind behind the killing, Akhtaruzzaman alias Shahin Mia - a US citizen - had fled to America, police said.

Although the motive is still not confirmed, police mentioned a business dispute between Shahin and Anar in a remand plea.

Media reports suggest that the two were involved in gold smuggling.

Harunor Rashid, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch, is heading a team of investigators in Kolkata.

During a visit to the crime scene on Monday, they brought along Jihad Hawlader, a Bangladeshi suspect arrested in India, to show where the body parts of the MP were dumped.

Siddheshwar Mandal, a gardener of Sanjeeva Gardens, said in an interview with three Dhaka-based TV stations that he had seen ‘three to four kg of flesh’ being recovered from the septic tank.

The pieces were “this small” – he showed with his thumb and index finger. In his words, the size was “pakoda cut”.

He added that the pieces were flashed through the toilet of the apartment. Bhushon Shikari, a cleaner who recovered the pieces from the tank, is a brother-in-law of Siddheshwar.

“How can so much flesh end up in a septic tank? These must be the MP’s flesh. Otherwise police wouldn’t have recovered those.”