The accused being produced at a local court, at Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, on May 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
A Bangladeshi national arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police in connection with the murder of Bangladesh MP Md. Anwarul Azim Anar in Kolkata was sent to 12 days of police custody by a city court on Friday.
The suspect, Jihad Hawladar, 24, is an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh, according to the CID. A resident of Barakpur in Bangladesh’s Khulna district, and working as a butcher in Mumbai, Mr. Hawladar has admitted to his involvement in the murder of the MP before the CID. He was staying at a flat in Chinar Park in Kolkata for more than two months. The CID arrested him from Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district on Thursday.
Earlier, the police in Bangladesh arrested three suspects in connection with the death of the MP.
The victim, 56-year-old Anwarul Azim Anar, was a three-time Awami League MP from Jhenaidah-4 in Khulna district of Bangladesh. He had arrived in Kolkata on May 12 for medical treatment. CCTV footage from May 13 showed him entering a housing complex in Kolkata’s New Town area with two men and a woman. Between May 13 and May 15, the three people, who were entered the complex with Anar, were caught on CCTV cameras leaving the premises carrying two big bags.
Media reports have quoted the Dhaka Police as saying that the MP was smothered to death, his body cut into pieces and mixed with turmeric powder before being disposed of. Police are on the lookout to retrieve the body parts. The Dhaka Police are suspecting that a U.S.-based businessman, Md. Akhtaruzzaman Shahin, had masterminded the murder and hired the alleged killers, the reports said.