The sensational murder of the ruling party Member of Parliament (MP) from Jhenaidah-4 (Kaliganj) Constituency Anwarul Azim Anar has been unfurling to be interconnected tales of betrayal, greed and gruesome brutality.
MP Anar has been a victim of murder in Kolkata planned by his childhood friend and business partner Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen, said the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
“Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen, a citizen of the United States (US) of Bangladeshi origin, assigned the task of killing MP Azim to killers hired for Tk5 crore,” said a DB official on Wednesday (22 May).
“He [Shaheen] had agreed to pay Tk5 crore to kill MP Anar. Some money was paid before the murder. The rest of the money was supposed to be paid after the murder,” he added.
Shahin's brother is the mayor of Kotchandpur municipality in Jhenaidah, police said.
A sinister squad of six
MP Anar’s murder was planned by Shaheen in Kolkata. His hired killers lured MP Anar to a trap set at a residential apartment building named Sanjeeva Garden located in Kolkata’s upscale New Town area.
The killers were led by Amanullah Aman, an extremist leader and friend of Shahin.
According to the police, Amanullah was once a leader of the Purbo Banglar Communist Party and was in prison for 20 years in two murder cases.
The parliamentarian was cornered and then killed by suffocation using a pillow by the group of 6, including Aman.
Later, the body was cut into pieces and put in trolley bags to get rid of it.
Following the murder, Aman came back after giving the task of getting rid of the body to two associates named Siam and Jihad.
He came to Dhaka and met Aktaruzzaman Shaheen.
However, it is not yet known how much money Shaheen gave him later, investigators said.
DB officials said that Aman was hiding in his sister's house in Mohammadpur after coming back to Dhaka. He was arrested from there.
Anatomy of a murder
On 30 April, Shaheen went to Kolkata with Aman along with a female friend of his named Silasti Rahman.
There, they moved to a duplex flat in Sanjeeva Garden which had been rented in advance.
Siam and Jihad were already in Kolkata. Shaheen returned to Bangladesh on 10 May after giving all tasks for the murder to Aman.
As planned, Aman hired two more killers and got them to Kolkata.
The two hired killers, Faisal Shaji and Mostafiz went to Kolkata on 11 May.
According to the information obtained during Aman’s interrogation, Shaheen already knew that MP Annar would go to Kolkata on 12 May.
He asked the gang to make all preparations to kill MP Anar.
The group had bought multiple cleavers for that.
On 12 May, MP Annar went to Kolkata through the Darshana border at Chuadanga.
He stayed at his friend Gopal's house. The next day on 13 May, the killers lured him to the flat in New Town.
After MP Anar went to the flat in Sanjeeva Garden, Aman along with his accomplices Faisal, Mustafiz, Siam and Jihad held him hostage. At that time they also asked the MP Anar to repay the money he owed Shaheen.
Then the group killed MP Anar by suffocating him with a pillow.
His body was chopped into pieces and wrapped in polythene then packed in trolley bags to get rid of it - as Shaheen had planned.
Two big trolley bags and polythene bags were brought from the shopping mall near the flat.
In between, they brought bleaching powder and cleaned the blood stains in the house.
Kolkata police have collected the footage from all the CCTV cameras of the flat and the surrounding buildings.
Analysing the CCTV footage, Aman and his accomplices were seen bringing and taking the trolley bags and taking the shoes kept outside, including MP Anar’s pairs, inside.
Shaheen's female friend, Shilasti Rahman was seen bringing polythene bags and bleaching powder.
Aman left the house with a trolley bag in the afternoon after the murder.
During interrogation, he told the police that he left the house and handed over the trolley bag to Siam in front of a nearby shopping mall.
Siam took the bag and left for an unknown location in their pre-rented car.
However, the driver of the rented car told the Kolkata police that Siam got out of the car with the bag after going a little far from where they started.
The body parts were in another bag and it began to reek.
Aman came back to Dhaka with Celeste on 15 May, instructing his associates to dump the bag somewhere.
DB officials said that after the murder, the killers took the phones used by MP Anar and left for different directions so that law enforcement agencies would be confused about his whereabouts.
Mustafiz returned to Bangladesh on 17 May and Faisal on 18 May.
The devil disappears
When the news began to spread about MP Anwarul Azim Anar's disappearance, Saheen, who had come back to Bangladesh on 10 May, again left for Nepal via India on 18 May.
He left Nepal on 21 May for the United Arab Emirates.
On 22 May, he left for the United States from Dubai.
Greed and gold led to an early grave?
The brutal killing of MP Anwarul Azim is suspected to be due to a dispute over the sharing of gold smuggling proceeds.
According to police, Aktaruzzaman Shaheen himself is a gold smuggler and MP Anwarul Azim Anar was allegedly involved with it.
Shaheen and Azim have a joint business in Kolkata.
Case filed, but none named
Meanwhile, a case has been registered at the Sher-E-Bangla Nagar police station in the capital regarding the murder of Anwarul Azim Anar in Kolkata.
His daughter, Mumtarin Ferdous Doreen filed the case on Wednesday (22 May).
However, No accused has been named in the case.
