Staff Reporter:
Three accused, who gave confessional statements over the MP Anwarul Azim Anar murder, filed pleas with a Dhaka court on Thursday to withdraw their statements.
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Mahbubul Haque held a hearing on the pleas.
The suspects are Relief and Social Welfare Affairs Secretary of Jhenaidah Awami League Kazi Kamal Ahmed Babu alias Gas Babu, Shimul Bhuiyan alias Amanullah and Tanvir Bhuiyan.
Of them, Babu gave a confessional statement before a Dhaka court under the Penal Code’s Section 164 on 14 June, Shimul, who is accused as the prime killer, on 5 June, and Tanvir on 4 June.
In the plea, the suspects stated that they are now ill after being tortured during remand.
During the hearing on the pleas, the trio was produced before the court from a jail.
Former public prosecutor of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court Ehsanul Haque Somazi and some other lawyers took part in the hearing for the suspects.
After the hearing, the judge directed the court employees to record the pleas.
The court also directed the jail authority to ensure their treatment as per the jail code.
Ehsanul said they were forced to give confessional statements against their will and the statements were not true.
Bringing the confessional statement to light before trial is violation of the law as it is a secret document, he said.
He posed a question about how the confessions of the trio were published in mass media.
On 12 May, Momtarin Ferdous Dorin, daughter of MP Azim, filed the case against unknown people with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station in the capital.
In the case, she brought an allegation of abduction of his father for murder.
On 12 May, MP of Jhenaidah-4 constituency (Kaliganj) Azim went to Kolkata in the name of treatment. Next day, he was killed in a flat of Sanjeeva Gardens.
In the meantime, on Thursday, Commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Harun Or Rashid said Mostafizur Rahman and Faisal Ali Sazi, who earlier gave statements before a Dhaka court under section 164, confessed that Akhteruzzaman Shahin, who is alleged as the mastermind of the murder, financially helped them make their passports.
After getting the passports, they boarded in a capital flat owned by Shahin, he said in a video message.
With the help of another suspect, Siam, they managed to get fake test reports showing them as kidney and cardiovascular patients.
With the reports, they applied for Indian visas, said DB officer Harun.
When they obtained visas, Shahin provided them Tk20,000 to go to Kolkata by train.
And then on 10 May, they went to Kolkata and boarded in the Sanjeeva Gardens’ flat hired by Shahin.
Faisal took MP Azim from his (lawmaker) friend Gopal Chandra’s residence to Shimul Bhuiyan by a red private car on 13 May.
Faisal, Mostafiz and Jihad Howlader, another suspect, arranged chloroform, machetes and a chair with the help of Siam.
After killing the MP and cutting his body into pieces, only Faisal and Mostafiz were in the flat while the rest left it gradually.
Upon the directive of Shahin, they cleaned parts of the flat with powder to remove blood and hair of the deceased.
After that, they returned home and boarded at a house of Shahin.
On 19 May, they left it and went into hiding after the news of Shimul’s arrest.
The DB arrested the duo from a Hindu temple at Fatikchhari in Chattogram on 26 June. They were there in the guise of Hindus.
Police officer Harun said they are trying to arrest the rest of the suspects who are at large.
