A senior Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) officer planned the alleged ‘murder’ of Bangladesh Awami League MP Anwarul Azim Anar but not in the grisly manner in which the ‘story’ was laid out by the Bangladeshi sleuths after their arrival in Kolkata in the last week of May.
This police officer, whose identity Northeast News is withholding, was in close terms with the main accused in the Anar ‘murder’, US-based Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen who fled Bangladesh via New Delhi, Nepal and Dubai between May 20 and 21.
The police officer was a regular visitor to Shaheen’s Gulshan home, and sometimes in the company of a female friend.
More importantly, he was involved in several cases of “enforced disappearances” and extrajudicial killings of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami supporters in the past. Gulshan is an upscale neighbourhood in Dhaka.
The West Bengal CID, which has so far shown little interest in aggressively pursuing the case that could lead them to unveil the motive behind Anar’s alleged ‘murder’, also suspects the involvement of this DMP officer but some Kolkata-based officers familiar with the investigation said the department’s “hands are tied behind its back”. They attributed their investigative sluggishness to “pressure” from “certain quarters” in Bangladesh and India.
While CID sources admitted to the grave lapses committed by them in the investigation, West Bengal police intelligence sources pointed to a glaring instance of “slippage” in describing Jihad Howladar as the “butcher” who allegedly took part in dismembering Anar’s body and that he was an illegal immigrant living in Mumbai.
Howladar, multiple Bangladeshi media reports have revealed, was a painting labourer with criminal antecedents, was wanted in Bangladesh for an alleged murder in March 2023.
After committing the crime, he crossed the India-Bangladesh border and was living in Kolkata. It is not known how and under what circumstances Shaheen or Shimul Bhuiyan, another prime accused in Anar’s ‘murder’, contacted him.
Over two months after the CID declared that Anar was murdered in a plush apartment at Sanjeeva Gardens complex in Kolkata’s New Town neighbourhood, there is little to indicate why and under what circumstances Anar was ‘murdered’.
There is no satisfactory explanation on the 4-kg ‘flesh’ retrieved from a sewer tank at Sanjeeva Gardens, two days after the DMP team’s arrival there.
Equally mystifying is the CID’s inability to furnish a report on DNA tests on the “flesh” pieces. There is no evidence to suggest that the “flesh” samples were sent to any forensic lab in Kolkata or other cities in India.
What adds to the suspicion that the DMP officer’s “narrative” was fabricated is the CID’s inability to trace other parts of Anar’s body, including bones.
West Bengal police intelligence officials suggested that “efforts must be made to probe the role of the DMP officer who even sought to introduce a political angle in Anar’s murder”.
The CID, the sources said, has “shown no inclination to probe deeper to unravel the motive behind Anar’s murder, even as the main ‘murder’ case was registered here”.
Kolkata’s New Town police officers Northeast News spoke with suspect a “deeper cross-border conspiracy” in Anar’s murder which may be linked to the Bangladeshi MP’s gold smuggling activities.
