A Dhaka court has placed MA Awal, former MP from Lakshmipur-1 constituency and former secretary general of Bangladesh Tarikat Federation on four-day remand, in a murder case filed over killing of a trader in front of his child son.
Two other people--Zahirul Islam Babu and Nur Mohammad Hasan-- were also placed on four-day remand in connection with the murder that took place in Pallabi area in the capital on May 16 this year.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Nivana Khayer Jesi passed the order of remand after Syed Iftekhar Hassan, an inspector of Detective Branch (DB) of Police and also investigation officer (IO) of the case, produced MA Awal and two other accused before the court on Friday with a 10-day remand prayer for interrogation.
In the remand prayer, the IO said that MA Awal was the mastermind behind the murder and as per his direction the other accused executed the killing mission. MA Awal had an enmity with the victim over land for a long time. Since he failed to grab the land, he hired goons to kill him.
MA Awal was arrested from Bhairab area in Kishoreganj on Thursday, while Hasan was arrested from Haimarchar area of Chandpur at about 11:30pm on Wednesday and Babu from Bauphal in Patuakhali at about 5:00 am on Thursday.
Besides, two other accused-- Md Sumon Bepari, 33, and Md Roky Talukdar, 25, were also arrested over the murder. The two accused were produced before the court on Thursday. At the same time, another accused Murad was also brought to court after a two-day remand.
However, the fifth accused of the murder case-- Md Manik-- was killed in a reported gunfight with members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in the Eastern Housing area at Rupnagar of Mirpur in the capital on Friday morning. Md Mozammel Haque, commanding officer (CO) of RAB-4, confirmed the matter to the media. Manik was the accused in several other cases.
According to the case history, a group of criminals attacked Shahin Uddin, 33, in front of his house at about 4:45pm on May 16 last. They stabbed the trader indiscriminately with sharp weapons, leaving him dead on the spot. Sahin’s six-year-old son Mashrafe was outside the gate of his house at the time of murder. A CCTV camera installed nearby recorded the barbaric incident.
The plan of the murder was engineered at MA Awal’s Kalabagan residence in the capital four to five days before the murder, RAB said.
A day after the murder, mother of victim Aklima Begum filed the case against 20 named and 13 to 14 other unnamed accused with Pallabi Police Station. MA Awal was made the prime accused in the case. The case was handed over to the DB police.
MA Awal was elected MP from Lakshmipur-2 constituency as a leader of the Bangladesh Tarikat Federation. He was later sacked from the party. The former Tarikat Federation MP is now chairman of the Islamic Democratic Party.
