Suspect Bashundhara MD Sayem’s wife, children leave Bangladesh by chartered flight

The wife, children and some other members of the family of Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir, who is accused of abetting the suicide of a young woman, have left Bangladesh.

Demonstration in Dhaka demanding the arrest of Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir over the death of college student Mosarat Jahan Muniya. Demonstration in Dhaka demanding the arrest of Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir over the death of college student Mosarat Jahan Muniya.

The building in Dhaka's Gulshan where college student Mosarat Jahan Muniya's body was found hanging from a ceiling fan. The building in Dhaka's Gulshan where college student Mosarat Jahan Muniya's body was found hanging from a ceiling fan.

The members of the family owning one of the leading business conglomerates flew on a chartered plane to Dubai on Thursday night amid a ban on regular flights due to the coronavirus pandemic, several officials of airport immigration and Armed Police Battalion or APBn confirmed to bdnews24.com.

Air Vice-Marshal Mafidur Rahman, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh or CAAB, said they allowed a special flight after the family asked for permission on Wednesday.

“They are supposed to leave today (Thursday),” he said.

An APBn official at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka said the chartered flight VPC11 left sometime before 9 pm.

FlightAware, which offers free flight tracking data, showed that the Embraer ERJ 135BJ Legacy 600 Business Jet left the airport at 8:56 pm and was near Dubai over the Gulf of Oman around 1:15 am on Friday.

An immigration official at the airport said eight passengers were on board the plane.

They were Sayem’s wife Sabrina Sobhan, their two children, his younger brother Safwan Sobhan Tasvir’s wife Yeasha Sobhan, Safwan and Yeasha’s daughter and three domestic aides.

Demonstration in Dhaka demanding the arrest of Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir over the death of college student Mosarat Jahan Muniya.

Safwan and three others left Dhaka for Dubai by another flight, another immigration official said.

Before Sayem, his elder brother Shafiat Sobhan Sanvir was managing director of Bashundhara Group.

Shafiat left Bangladesh in 2006 after being charged with murdering Humayun Kabir Sabbir, a director of Bashundhara Communications.

Shafiat returned home after the court acquitted him of Sabbir murder charges in 2011, but their father Ahmed Akbar Sobhan aka Shah Alam, chairman of Bashundhara Group, did not put him back as MD.

A court has slapped an overseas travel ban on 42-year-old Sayem in a case over the death of 21-year-old college girl Mosarat Jahan Muniya on Apr 26.

The court did not restrict the movement of his family members while Sayem has sought anticipatory bail from the High Court amid speculations that he had fled Bangladesh.

“We’ve allowed the special flight on a condition that they get Special Branch’s permission,” said CAAB Chairman Mafidul.

Comments from the police’s Special Branch were not available immediately.

Sayem had an “affair” with Muniya and used to visit her at a Gulshan flat he rented for her, according to the details of a case filed by Muniya’s family.

Muniya’s family alleged that he had promised to marry her, but later threatened her and asked her to go away, which prompted her to die by suicide.

SUICIDE?

Muniya was an HSC candidate of a college in Dhaka. After losing her parents, she was living in the capital alone while other members of the family were in Cumilla.

Her sister Nusrat Jahan said in the case that her body was hanging from a ceiling fan in a tilted position, while her legs touched the bed.

Nusrat also said an investigation would reveal whether it was suicide or murder.

The building in Dhaka's Gulshan where college student Mosarat Jahan Muniya's body was found hanging from a ceiling fan.

Sudeep Chakrabarty, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said they were waiting for the post-mortem examination report to determine the cause of Muniya’s death.

But the circumstances suggest it was suicide and the investigators were collecting evidence to confirm whether Sayem instigated the young woman to take her own life, he said.

Muniya had no wound on her body that had signs of death by hanging for a long time, according to him.

In the inquest report, the police said she had “red fluid coming out of her genitalia”.

In the post-mortem examination, the investigators also sought to know whether she had been raped or poisoned.

After checking the security camera footage of the building, the police said Sayem had visited the flat a number of times, but not on the day of Muniya’s death.

The police also recovered six diaries from the flat that they believe can reveal important evidence.

Nusrat said in the case that a woman named “Piasha” took Muniya to Sayem’s mother Afroza Begum and they threatened Muniya for her “affair” with Sayem.

Police officials said Faria Mahbub Piasha is the former wife of Shafat Ahmed, son of Dildar Ahmed Selim, one of the owners of Apan Jewellers.

The name of Piasha, a former director of private station Asian TV, had come up earlier in a case over the alleged rape of a student by Shafat at Banani’s Raintree Hotel.

When contacted, Piasha admitted that she is close to Sayem’s family and called Muniya to Afroza “to talk her out of her affair with a married man”.

Piasha denied threatening Muniya. She also said no one from the law enforcers contacted her over the death of Muniya.

Sharun Chowdhury, son of whip Shamsul Hoque Chowdhury, on Wednesday, said Muniya had contacted him over Messenger to warn him about an “affair” between Sayem and Sharun’s former wife “Shafia”.

Sharun said he had replied that he had known about it all along but there was not much he could do about it because he had already divorced Shafia in 2019.

“I divorced her for various reasons, including her travelling abroad with Anvir.”