The investigation into the suspected murder of Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar has revealed gory details which suggest he was honey-trapped before being strangulated and brutally dismembered.
The West Bengal CID probing the murder arrested one person for his alleged involvement in the murder, PTI quoted an officer. The suspect is said to be a resident of an area in West Bengal close to the international border with Bangladesh. The police are questioning him as to why he met Anwarul and what they discussed. The police however have not divulged the identity of the detained person.
Arrival on May 12
Anwarul arrived in Kolkata on May 12 and stayed at his friend Gopal Biswas’s residence in the city’s Baranagar area for two days before going missing. He maintained communication with the family until May 14. On May 16, a call was made from the MP's phone to his personal assistant, Abdur Rauf.
Unfortunately, Rauf missed the call, and subsequent attempts to call back were unsuccessful as the phone was switched off by then. Since then, the MP has remained unreachable. Biswas filed a general diary report regarding his disappearance at the Baranagar Police Station on May 18.
However, the police believe the MP could have been "lured" into a New Town flat by a woman and then murdered by contract killers. "Investigation indicated that the Bangladeshi parliamentarian fell into a honey trap laid by a woman who was also close to the victim's friend. It seems, Anwarul was lured into the New Town flat by the woman. We suspect he was murdered soon after he went to the flat," he said.
The CID is examining the CCTV footage which showed the MP entering the flat with a man and a woman. The unidentified man and woman were seen exiting the apartment multiple times between May 15 and May 17. Police said the duo was later seen coming out of the flat with a big trolley suitcase.
A primary probe into the incident revealed that the MP's close friend, a US citizen, had paid around Rs 5 crore to those involved in the crime. The 'close friend' owns a flat in Kolkata and is probably in the US at present, said police.
"It was a well-planned murder. A huge amount of money, around Rs 5 crore, was paid by an old friend of the MP to the contract killers to execute the crime. Further investigation is underway," he said.
The state CID, which is investigating the case, has found blood stains inside the New Town flat and also recovered several plastic bags, which they believe were used to dump the body parts.
Chopped up
Police said circumstantial evidence indicates that the MP was first strangulated and then his body was cut into several pieces. "We suspect that after killing Anar, the murderers mutilated the body, segregated the flesh from the bones and mixed those with turmeric powder to delay decomposition.
"Then the body parts were probably put inside plastic bags as well as in the trolley bag and scattered at different locations. We also suspect that some parts were kept in a refrigerator and we have collected samples," the officer said, adding search for the body parts was underway.
Text messages
Anwarul's friends reportedly received messages from his mobile phone to a few of his contacts asking them not to contact him as he was travelling to Delhi. "It seems these messages were sent from the MP's mobile phone to confuse his family members and friends and prevent them from launching a search for him... there is a possibility that these messages were sent after his murder," he said.
