Skin Peeled, Flesh Minced, Bones Cut: How Body Of Bangladesh MP, Missing From Kolkata, Was Disposed

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police has arrested another suspect in connection with the mysterious death of Bangladeshi MP Anwarul Azim Anar.

The killing of Azim Anar, who was last seen at a rented accommodation in New Town near Kolkata on Wednesday, has shocked neighbouring country. The first suspect, who was held earlier, was reportedly hired by the Awami League MP’s friend Akhtaruzzaman, a US citizen, in whose rented accommodation he was murdered.

The accused was later identified as Jihad Hawladar (24), a Bangladeshi national who is a butcher by profession. Another suspect has been identified as Zahid, a resident of Bongaon near the Bangladesh border, according to Dhaka Tribune. According to the Bangladesh newspaper, the Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is set to seek a 10-day remand period for the three individuals arrested over the murder of Azim Anar.

During questioning, the first suspect told police that on Akhtaruzzaman’s orders, he and four other Bangladeshi nationals smothered and killed Anwarul Azim Anar in the flat. “Thereafter they deskinned his entire body in the flat, removed all the flesh and minced the flesh to destroy the identity. Then, they packed everything in a polybag, cut the bones into small pieces and packed them as well. The accused then used various modes of transportation to dispose of those packets at different locations within the Kolkata area,” sources added. The arrested accused will be produced at the Barasat court on Friday, where police will seek his remand to verify his statement and recover the missing body parts.

The initial probe into the “murder” of Anwarul Azim Anar revealed that one of his close friends, a US citizen, had paid around Rs 5 crore to kill him. The Awami League MP’s friend owns a flat in Kolkata, and is probably in the US at present, a senior police officer said. Police also said that the flat in Kolkata’s New Town area, where the Bangladesh MP was last seen entering, was rented out to his friend by its owner, an excise department employee. “It was a well-planned murder. A huge amount of money, around Rs 5 crore was paid by an old friend of the MP to kill him. Further investigation is underway,” the officer said on Thursday.

Anar, who went missing in Kolkata on May 13, was found murdered and three people have been arrested, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said on Wednesday. The West Bengal Police had said the investigation of the case has been taken up by the state CID. On Thursday night, Kolkata police said that they recovered the dismembered body part of the Bangladeshi lawmaker.

The state CID has found blood stains inside the apartment of a luxury condominium in New Town on Kolkata’s outskirts, where the MP’s whereabouts were last traced on May 13. They also recovered several plastic bags, which they believe were used to dump the body parts. Circumstantial evidence indicates that the MP was first strangulated and then his dead body was mutilated in several parts, police claimed. “The body parts were probably put inside plastic bags and scattered at different locations. We also suspect that some parts were kept in a refrigerator and we have collected samples,” the officer said.

The search for the missing MP, who reportedly arrived in Kolkata on May 12 to undergo medical treatment, began six days later 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.