Former police superintendent Babul Akter was sent to jail yesterday on completion of his five-day remand period.

He was arrested last week over the killing of his wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu in 2016.

After the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) took him to a Chattogram Court around 10:30am, he spent almost four hours at the office of Metropolitan Magistrate Sarwar Jahan, but did not make what investigators hoped would be a confessional statement, said Kazi Shahabuddin Ahmed, assistant commissioner (prosecution) of Chattogram Metropolitan Police.

The magistrate then sent him to jail.

"We will appeal for his bail," Babul's lawyer Arifur Rahman said.

His wife Mitu's father Mosharraf Hossain accused him in a murder case filed with Panchlaish Police Station last Wednesday.

Babul was arrested the same day, said PBI Inspector Santosh Kumar Chakma, who is investigating the case.

Babul was summoned to Chattogram PBI office last Tuesday. Officers said he could not give satisfactory answers to several questions asked by the detectives.

Babul is suspected of being the mastermind of the murder and he spent Tk 3 lakh to hire the hitmen through police informant Kamrul Islam Musa, they added.

Chattogram Jail Authority has arranged special security for Babul in prison. Several islamist militants, including Neo-JMB members, arrested by Babul when he was in the police force, are still in jail, officials said.