Two alleged conspirators and district-level Awami League leaders thrice met the daughter and close party associates of Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar after he was allegedly murdered in a Kolkata apartment on May 13, sources close to the slain parliamentarian and police sources have revealed to Northeast News.
It is reliably learnt that Awami League’s Jhenaidah district General Secretary Saidul Karim Mintu and the party’s Joint General Secretary Kazi Kamal Ahmed Babu visited Anar’s home and constituency – Kaliganj – on May 23, 26 and 30 to pay condolences to the ‘murdered’ MP’s family members and close party associates.
On one such visit, Mintu even delivered a public speech in Kaliganj (Jhenaidah-4), which was Anar’s constituency. Video clips of his speech is available with several Kaliganj Awami League supporters.
While Bangladesh’s Detective Branch sleuths arrested Mintu on June 11 evening following sustained interrogation in Dhaka, Babu was arrested on June 8 in Jhenaidah where he is a resident. Mintu was picked up outside an Awami League party office at Dhanmondi’s Road No. 3.
He was questioned on several aspects of the sensational case but more importantly on why he was sent photographs of Anar lying unconscious and naked in a bedroom of the apartment in Kolkata’s New Town neighbourhood.
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These photographs were shared over WhatsApp by Babu who, in turn, had received them from one of the alleged ‘murderers’, Shimul Bhuiyan alias Amanullah.
Mintu, Awami League and Bangladesh Police sources said, could not provide any satisfactory response to their intense questioning.
Before his eventual arrest, Awami League sources in Jhenaidah had confirmed to Northeast News that Mintu was interrogated for his alleged links to Anar’s ‘murder’.
Several Awami League sources in Jhenaidah and Dhaka said the party leadership was aware of the huge wealth that Mintu had amassed as the mayor of Jhenaidah and subsequently as the party’s district general secretary.
But what has stunned the Jhenaidah Awami League’s rank and file was Babu and Mintu’s “audacious” visit to Anar’s home, indicating confidence that the duo would not be suspected of any foul play.
“It is quite unbelievable that Mintu and Babu visited Anar’s house on three occasions to pay condolences to the slain MP’s family members. They simply wanted to make it appear that they were alongside the family after the tragic murder,” an Awami League supporter close to Anar said.
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Mintu and Babu’s involvement in the alleged ‘murder’ now shifts the focus from the so-called ‘mastermind’ Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen to the two Jhenaidah Awami League party duo.
The Detective Branch has now begun to dig deeper to find out whether Mintu was to pay Taka 2 crore to the alleged murderers to “get rid of” Anar.
Detective Branch sources said that New York-based Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen had instructed one of the supposed killers, a former extreme Left leader from Jhenaidah, Shimul Bhuiyan alias Aamanullah, to collect Taka 2 crore from Babu.
While it is still not clear whether this amount is linked to Anar’s alleged ‘murder’, several messages exchanged between Bhuiyan and Babu over WhatsApp over May 15 and 23 indicate that this amount might be “hit money”.
Sources said that Bhuiyan returned to Dhaka on May 15 following the ‘killing’. He was allegedly told by Shaheen to pick up the money from Babu.
The following day, Babu and Bhuiyan spoke over WhatsApp. The duo met up on the Bhanga expressway in Faridpur on May 17 when Babu said he would pay him the money on May 23.
And in the event he failed to make the payment on May 23, the next date for handing over the money was fixed for May 26.
However, their plans went awry when the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department declared on May 22 that Anar might have been murdered.
Babu allegedly went into hiding. Meanwhile, it has emerged that before his arrest, Babu destroyed three mobile phone handsets that he used and lodged a General Diary report at Jhenaidah police station.
In the event the police investigation leads to Mintu as the financier who was to pay off Bhuiyan and the others, he could be labelled as the ‘main mastermind’.
This would certainly lend a political ‘colour’ to the alleged ‘murder’ but the Detective Branch will also have to deal with the motive behind Anar’s alleged ‘murder’.
This may lead them to find out if Anar’s alleged ‘murder’ is linked to Awami League leaders who sought to wrest the multi-crore illicit gold smuggling activities from the MP’s control.
Mintu is a resident of Jhenaidah but worked closely with Dhaka-based top-level Awami League leaders, including MPs.
There are indications that other senior Awami League leaders might also be “involved” in the conspiracy to have Anar killed in Kolkata where he reached on May 12.
