Butcher who chopped Bangladesh MP's body arrested

The West Bengal crime investigation department on Friday claimed to have arrested a Bangladeshi, working as a butcher in Mumbai, from Bangoan in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal here for his alleged involvement in the grisly murder of Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar whose body was cut into pieces and disposed of in different locations.

The arrested man has admitted during interrogation to helping the other accused in chopping the victim's body in a flat in New Town area near Kolkata before disposing of the parts in different locations, a police officer claimed.

"The accused is a butcher by profession. He had entered India illegally and was staying in Mumbai hiding his identity.

"He was called to Kolkata a couple of months back as a part of the plan to kill Anar. He has admitted that he was an accomplice to the four men who murdered the politician inside the flat and helped them in skinning and chopping the body," the police officer told PTI.

The arrested man, when produced before a court in Barasat on Friday afternoon, was sent to the remand of the CID for 12 days, he said.

CID sleuths have confirmed the murder of Anar, an Awami League MP from Jhenaidah-4 segment in Bangladesh, on Wednesday after the victim went missing from Kolkata on May 13.

A team of CID officers were in the process of searching for the victim's body parts at the Krishnamati village in Bhangar where the butcher had led them, he said.

The CID has employed deepwater divers at ponds in Bhangar also to find out the body parts of the Bangladeshi politician, he said, adding that drones were also used for the same purpose.

An initial probe revealed that the MP's close friend Akhtaruzzaman, a US citizen, had paid around Rs 5 crore to those involved in the crime, the senior police officer said.

"We will talk to him (butcher) to get a clearer view of the crime. How did he get in touch with the US-based friend of Anar and who all were his partners," the officer said.

A team of the West Bengal CID visited Bangladesh on Thursday to interrogate the three accused who were arrested by Bangladesh police in connection with the case.

The MP's friend has a flat in Kolkata, and is probably in the US at present, he said.

Circumstantial evidence indicated that the MP was first strangulated and killed after which his body was chopped into pieces, police claimed.

The search for the missing MP, who reportedly arrived in Kolkata on May 12 to undergo medical treatment, began 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 Bangladeshi MP went incommunicado on May 17, which prompted him to file a missing complaint a day later.