Published : 05 Sep 2026, 10:59 PM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:47 AM
The man found dead on the Dhaka Elevated Expressway with his mouth taped shut had been travelling to Gazipur with Tk 500,000 from a land sale to help pay for his daughter’s wedding, his family says.
Relatives say the cash and two mobile phones he had been carrying are missing.
The victim, identified as Ismail Hossain, 50, was returning to Gazipur from his ancestral home in Jamalpur when he went missing.
His relatives identified the body at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Saturday after police contacted the family.
Ismail was the son of Jalal Uddin of Jalalabad in Jamalpur Sadar Upazila.
His family said his only daughter, Sharmin, was due to be married and that he had sold land to raise money for the wedding.
Ismail’s son Hasan said his father had sold 11 decimals of land in the village for Tk 1.05 million.
Of that amount, he repaid Tk 200,000 in debt and spent part of the money on building a house in the village, Hasan said.
“He was bringing the remaining Tk 500,000 in cash to Gazipur, along with some shopping,” Hasan said.
“He also had an Android phone and a button phone with him, but none of these was found.”
Police recovered Ismail’s body from the Dhaka Elevated Expressway on Friday morning.
His mouth had been taped shut and he was wearing a blue shirt resembling those commonly worn by CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers, along with a lungi.
Police later established his identity by matching his fingerprints with records in the national identity database, Banani Police Sub-Inspector Nazrul Islam Talukder said.
Ismail had worked as a security guard at Delta Spinning Mill but left the job nine months ago because of illness.
He continued living in Kashimpur, Gazipur, with his wife, two children and daughter-in-law before returning to his village home in Jamalpur around four months ago.
Hasan said his father left Jamalpur at around 3:30am on Friday for Gazipur.
“Around 11pm, my father called me and said he would arrive in the morning,” he said.
“He was coming to finalise the arrangements for my younger sister Sharmin’s wedding. He was supposed to fix the date after arriving.”
Ismail was expected to get off at Zirani in Gazipur the following morning.
His son Rasel went there to meet him and repeatedly tried to call, but Ismail’s phone was switched off.
Banani Police later contacted Jamalpur Police, who informed the family.
Rasel then went to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where he identified his father’s body.
Police said they were reviewing CCTV footage from the expressway and trying to identify the vehicle believed to have been involved in bringing the body to the area.
“We suspect he was killed elsewhere and the body was brought there by car,” SI Nazrul said.
Police said the body would be handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination.
