Plot to murder Bangladesh MP hatched in Dhaka months ago: Police

PTI, May 25, 2024, 9:41 AM IST

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The plot to murder Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar, which was hatched at least four to five months back, would give any crime thriller a run for its money, investigating officers of the West Bengal CID claimed on Friday.

From hiring a butcher in Dhaka to laying a honeytrap and luring the politician to Kolkata in the name of treatment, the plot was well-planned in January in Bangladesh’s capital city, an officer of the West Bengal CID claimed.

Anar’s close friend, a US citizen, probably visited Dhaka a couple of times and used virtual platforms like Facetime and Telegram messenger to be in touch with his accomplices, the people in Bangladesh to hatch the plot to kill Anar.

It seemed that the butcher was “illegally brought” to India to help them execute the crime, the officer claimed.

“It’s unthinkable, the way Anar’s body was mutilated and then skinned to hide his identity. The flesh and the bones were segregated and then chopped into smaller pieces before they were washed to remove blood before being mixed with turmeric powder and packed in smaller black plastic bags,” he said.

Some parts of the body, probably the skull and long bones, were cut using a chopper and then put in a trolley before they were thrown away, he added.

“The MP’s body was taken inside the bathroom where they chopped it. The bathroom was then cleaned repeatedly using water and detergent. The entire flat was also washed to remove blood stains.

After the murder and chopping the body into pieces, the culprits had food and alcohol in the flat, police claimed.

Probe also revealed that the MP’s close friend, the US citizen, had paid around Rs 5 crore to those involved in the crime, he added.

State CID sleuths on Friday took the arrested person to the Bhangar area where the chopped body parts were put in plastic bags and scattered across different places, he said.

The butcher, CID officers said, was staying at the New Town flat for two and a half months.

“He planned to run away either to Mumbai or to Bangladesh which he could not but his accomplices did,” he added.

The CID officer said that two of the criminals had put up at a hotel in New Market area in the heart of Kolkata for at least four days before “killing” Anar.

“They came back to the hotel on May 13 evening and checked out with two trolley bags. They returned on May 17 and purchased two trolley suitcases,” he said, adding that one wheelchair was also purchased by them.

“The purpose of the wheelchair is under investigation,” he said.

Police have collected blood samples from the stains from the New Town flat for forensic examination to confirm the identity, he said.

Circumstantial evidence indicated that the MP was first strangulated and killed after which his body was chopped into pieces, police claimed.

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.