Bangladeshi MP murder: Bengal CID plans to visit Nepal to trace conspirator

Kolkata: The West Bengal CID is planning to visit neighbouring Nepal in search of a person who allegedly helped the prime suspect in the murder of Bangladeshi MP Anwarul Azim Anar engage a butcher, an officer said on Tuesday.

The officer claimed that the prime suspect, Anar’s childhood friend and business partner, now a US citizen, was in Kolkata when the MP was killed in a flat in New Town near here.

After the murder, the friend, identified as Akhtaruzzaman, fled to Nepal and then to the USA via Dubai, he said.

An arrested person, who police claimed is a butcher by profession, allegedly chopped the body of the Awami League lawmaker into 80 pieces and mixed them with turmeric before disposing them off at different locations including a canal around New Town.

The butcher is a Bangladesh national who entered India illegally.

Investigators suspect that one person named Siyam, who had helped Anar’s friend get the butcher employed to chop the body, also fled to Nepal and has been hiding there, the officer said.

"We are mulling the option of visiting Nepal where Siyam may be hiding. He is an important part of the investigation. The arrested butcher has admitted that it was Siyam who had helped him enter India using fake documents and then stay in the New Town flat," the CID officer told PTI.

Investigators of the state CID on Tuesday claimed to have recovered a few pieces of flesh and strands of hair from the septic tank of the New Town flat, where Anar was suspected to have been murdered. They also collected blood specimen from that flat.

The investigators are planning to conduct DNA tests on those specimens and match the results with one of the family members of Anar to confirm the identity of the deceased, he said.

As a part of it, the daughter of the Awami League MP is likely to come to the city, the CID officer said.

The Disaster Management Team of the Kolkata Police on Wednesday resumed search in the Bagjola canal adjacent to an amusement park near Rajarhat to locate the MP’s body parts as well as the tools used to chop the body, he added.

A three-member team of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch is in the city to investigate the death of Anar. The team is being led by the Detective Branch chief Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid.

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 and 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.