Nearly two weeks after Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar was brutally killed in Kolkata, a three-member team from the Dhaka detective branch led by its additional commissioner Harun-Or-Rashid reached India on Sunday to investigate the murder.
While speaking to media in Kolkata, Rashid ascertained that the main accused in the murder might have escaped from Nepal to the United States. He claimed the accused might have taken the air route via Dubai to reach America.
"We just landed here. In our criminal Act, there is a section called Extra Territorial Offence which means, that if an individual commits a crime outside Bangladesh, we, under this Extra Territorial Offence section, can investigate those crimes," said the Bangladeshi detective.
The investigators claimed that an alleged rift over gold smuggling between Anar and his friend, who is a US citizen and his business partner, could be the cause of the crime. "The mastermind of this murder, the beneficiary and those who executed the plans, all are Bangladeshi. The murder plot was planned in Bangladesh. Now our main work is to take forward the investigation," he added.
He said that the Kolkata Police has already shared crucial details regarding the case and added CCTV footage will be checked thoroughly.
Akhtaruzzaman escaped
The top Bangladeshi official noted that the main conspirator Akhtaruzzaman might have escaped from Kathmandu to the US via Dubai. "We are trying to trace him through Interpol. We will go to the CID office. We will have a meeting with the officers of CID. We will try to interrogate the arrested accused so that we can get more information..." he said.
Earlier, a CID officer said that a butcher was arrested from Mumbai and he had admitted to chopping the MP's body into over 80 pieces before they were disposed of in different locations in Bhangar. The probe agency's officers continued their search during the day for the body parts of the Bangladeshi lawmaker in a canal at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district, where the arrested butcher had led them, he said.
The CID officers were also taking the help of a cab driver who had taken the accused persons to different locations before dropping them near Bangaon, he said.
The search for the missing MP, who reportedly arrived in Kolkata on May 12 to undergo medical treatment, began after Gopal Biswas, a resident of Baranagar in north Kolkata and an acquaintance of the Bangladeshi politician, filed a complaint with the local police on May 18.
Anar had stayed at Biswas's house upon arrival. In his complaint, Biswas stated that Anar left his Baranagar residence for a doctor's appointment in the afternoon of May 13, while stating that he would be back home for dinner. Biswas claimed that the Bangladesh MP went incommunicado on May 17, which prompted him to file a missing complaint a day later.
(With inputs from agencies)
