Police arrest three suspects in architect Imtiaz murder case

Police say Imtiaz and the arrestees were members of a LGBTQ community

Police have arrested three suspects in connection with the murder of architect Imtiaz Mohammad Bhuiyan, whose body was recovered after he went missing earlier in March.

The suspects, Millat Hossain Munna alias Moon, 19, Ehsan alias Megh, 23, and Anwar Hossain, 38, were apprehended in Sirajganj, Dhaka, and Narayanganj, said Md Golam Sabur, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch.

According to Sabur, 47-year old Imtiaz and the suspects were members of a LGBTQ community and they knew each other through a dating app for LGBTQ people. Megh is a person of the third gender.

Imtiaz left his home in Dhaka’s Tejgaon and went to a house in Kalabagan where he met with Alif, another member of the group identified with a single name, said Sabur.

The three suspects and another person, Arafat, barged into the house and demanded money from Imtiaz in an attempt to blackmail him, the police officer said.  

They beat him up as he refused to pay the sum and died at one stage of the assault, Sabur said.

The three suspects then fled to India’s Tripura after dumping the body in Munshiganj, he said.

Police recovered the body on Mar 8 and the family identified him later.

The suspects returned home under pressure after the law enforcers notified Tripura police about the matter, Sabur said.

Efforts are underway to arrest the two other accused, Arafat and Alif, he said.

Fahmida Zerin, Imtiaz's wife, said her husband had left home saying he needed to print a design on Mar 7 afternoon and never returned.