Court grants four more days to interrogate MP Nazrul as police probe ‘suicide abetment’

Lawmaker Gazi Nazrul Islam has been sent for four more days of police questioning as investigators probe allegations that he drove his 19-year-old second wife Mariam Khatun to suicide.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Ripon Hossain passed the order in Dhaka on Thursday following a petition by the investigating officer, said Rafiqul Islam, a subinspector with the prosecution department.

After four days of questioning, Nazrul was produced in court on Thursday, where DB Inspector Mohammad Salauddin, the investigating officer, sought seven more days for questioning.

Police recovered Mariam’s hanging body from a flat at NAM Bhaban near the parliament complex on Sunday.

That night, police took Nazrul and his first wife Maksuda Islam into custody.

Later that night, Mariam’s father SM Masum Billah filed the case against Nazrul, Maksuda and the victim’s maternal uncle, Obaidur Rahman, accusing them of abetting her suicide.

The following day, the court granted Nazrul four days and Maksuda one day in remand on a petition by Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police SI Md Shamsuzzoha Sarkar.

The case was handed over to the Detective Branch that night.

In the complaint, Masum alleged that Mariam married Nazrul in June under the “direct instigation” of her maternal uncle Obaidur.

Mariam lived with Nazrul and Maksuda at Flat 203 of NAM Bhaban 5.

According to the complaint, Mariam had told her family that Nazrul and Maksuda had subjected her to physical and mental abuse over different matters since the marriage.