Police find body of youth six months after kidnap and murder in Gazipur

Kidnappers killed him after his family refused to pay ransom, police say

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 18 May 2023, 02:02 PM
Updated : 18 May 2023, 02:02 PM

Police have recovered the remains of a youth wrapped in polythene sheet from a septic tank in Gazipur’s Sreepur, six months after he was allegedly killed by his kidnappers. 

The law enforcers have also arrested five suspects in the murder. 

The victim, 25-year-old Amir Hossain, was a resident of Noakhali. He came to Dhaka in December 2022, saying he would meet his friends. He left his sister Nurunnaher Begum’s home in Dakshinkhan on Dec 23 never to return. 

His other sister Kamrunnahar Begum received a call from Amir’s phone and his kidnappers demanded Tk 1 million in ransom, police said. 

Amir’s elder brother who gave a single name, Bilal, filed a general diary with Dakshin Khan police who accepted it as a case on May 13 after not being able to find him.

Md Morshed Alam, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said on Thursday that they found the body on Wednesday night after making the arrests. 

The arrestees are Tareq Ahammed, 31, Mohammad Hridoy Ali, 29, Ashraful Islam, 23, Russell Sarder, 25, and Touhidul Islam Babu, 30. 

Tareq and Hridoy were nabbed from Hatia Island. The mastermind of the murder was Tareq and the others helped him carry it out, Morshed said. 

TABLIGH AFTER MURDER 

Rozia Khatun, sub-inspector of Dakshinkhan police who is leading the investigation, said Tareq had gone into hiding by joining a Tabligh Jamaat group, who travel around to preach Islam, after disposing of Amir’s body. Police arrested him from that group. 

They killed Amir on Dec 29 after his family refused to pay the ransom, she said 

Detailing how he was kidnapped, Morshed said Tareq used Facebook Messenger to call Amir to Gazipur where the two drank an energy drink but Amir’s one had sleeping pills in it. 

Amir was then taken to a hostel where he was given more sleeping pills. 

“They kidnapped Amir with hopes of getting a lot of money from his family as his brother lived in Saudi Arabia. But they were refused any ransom.” 

Citing an initial investigation, Morshed said Tareq used to “offer gay sex” to people on Messenger. Those who responded were called to Gazipur intersection, Sreepur or Mawna where they were robbed. 

Tareq also called Amir to Gazipur intersection, he added. 

Ashraful was the first one arrested in Savar’s Zirabo and based on information gleaned from him, Russell and Babu were nabbed from Dhaka. Tareq and his associate Hridoy were the last ones arrested.