WEST BENGAL police said Wednesday they have received information that Bangladesh MP Md Anwarul Azim, who went missing a day after arriving in Kolkata on May 12, has been murdered. They said the case is being handled by the CID and a Special Investigation Team has been formed to trace his body and probe the murder.
Hours later, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan announced at a press conference in Dhaka that three persons have been arrested there for the murder of Azim, a three-time MP of the ruling Awami League.
Khan said Azim was in Kolkata for medical treatment. “We have been informed by the Indian police that he has been murdered. After he went missing, the Indian police shared inputs with us… Based on that, our police arrested three persons. We are cooperating with the Indian police. He has been murdered in a pre-planned way at a residence there (Kolkata),” the minister said.
The arrests were made by the Dhaka Metropolitan police Wednesday. The suspects told the police that the MP had been murdered. The police suspect that the three accompanied Azim to India and fled back after the murder.
In Kolkata, IG (CID) Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi told reporters: “Anwarul Azim Anar was missing since May 13. His daughter tried to contact him but failed. After this a missing person complaint was registered at Baranagar Police Station.”
“An SIT was formed to probe the matter and in the meantime the West Bengal government got a letter from the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) to investigate this case. Today, we got an input that he has been murdered. We are trying our best to solve this case. The CID is investigating the matter,” the officer said.
According to the police, Azim went missing from a flat in Kolkata’s New Town area. Investigators said he came to Kolkata on May 12 after crossing the Gede border in Nadia district around 2.40 pm. He first went to Mondolpara lane in Baranagar to meet his friend Gopal Biswas, a gold trader. On May 13, he left Biswas’s residence and went to the New Town flat which he had taken on rent. He went missing from there.
When his family members failed to contact him, they filed a complaint with the police in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Biswas too filed a complaint at Baranagar Police Station on May 18.
Police sources said blood stains were found at the New Town flat and a forensic team has collected samples. The police also collected CCTV footage of the apartment complex.
Azim, police sources said, was accompanied by two men and a woman when he checked into the apartment. While CCTV footage showed that the unidentified men and woman left the complex between May 15 and May 17, the MP could not be traced.
Speaking to reporters in Dhaka, Mumtarin Firdous Dorin, the MP’s daughter, said, “I have been informed that my father has been murdered. I want the accused arrested and punished. I want justice for my father’s murder. I met the chief of Detective Branch (Dhaka police) and requested him to find out why my father was killed and who killed him.”
Speaking to reporters in Bangladesh, IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun said, “The Indian police and we are jointly working on this. We are cooperating with the Indian police.”