Babul's link has not come up yet
It has not yet come up that SP Babul Akter was responsible for or involved in the killing of his wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said yesterday.
He said this when asked about the police official's “suspected links” to the murder as reported in the media.
The minister was talking to reporters at the capital's Osmani Memorial Auditorium after an Anti-Narcotics Day event arranged by the Department of Narcotics Control.
Earlier, some media outlets reported that "detained suspects divulged Babul's links to the killing".
Investigators kept Babul in custody for about 15 hours from early hours Saturday.
Police said the SP himself went to the DB office on Minto Road to answer some questions as he is the plaintiff in the case. But according to his family members, he was interrogated as some arrestees had informed police about his “involvement in the murder”.
In another development, Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) arrested two people in connection with the murder and seized two firearms and six bullets upon their confession.
Of the arrestees, Ehteshamul Haque, alias Hamidul Haque, alias Bhola, 41, is from Rajakhali under Bakalia Police Station. Munir Hossain, 28, is from Muradnagar in Comilla and he resides at Rajakhali.
On June 5, three assailants stabbed and shot dead Mitu after she left her OR Nizam Road house on foot around 6:35am to put her son on a school bus at GEC Intersection in the port city.
Police said seven to eight persons took part in the murder. Of them, three attacked Mitu and others were backup team members.
The home minister yesterday also said investigators interrogated Babul only to learn who might have killed Mitu and what could be the motive. Besides, the police official was made to stand face to face with some suspects.
Asked whether militants or any other vested quarters are linked to the killing, he said they will be able to say about it once they get “intelligence reports”.
On question whether Babul is under police surveillance, the minister replied in the negative. “No. We never said he is under our surveillance.”
Mosharraf Hossain, father-in-law of Babul, said 11 uniformed policemen, deployed at his Khilgaon house, left around 12:15pm on Monday without saying anything.
But one or two persons with walky-talkies in hands were apparently watching the house later and they looked like plainclothes officers, said Mosharraf, himself a former police official.
Babul and his two children are staying in this house.
'BHOLA SUPPLIED ARMS'
After the arrest of Bhola and Munir and recovery of arms, Assistant Commissioner Md Kamruzzaman of DB lodged an arms case with the Bakalia Police Station yesterday.
Police earlier claimed that it was Bhola who supplied arms for the shooting of Mitu.
Two other suspects arrested earlier, Wasim and Anwar, in their confessional statement under section 164 before a Chittagong court said they received the arms used in the murder from Bhola and returned those to him after the killing, CMP Additional Commissioner (crime & operation) Devdas Bhattacharya said.
Bhola was arrested in Rajkhali area around 10:30pm on Monday. During primary interrogation, he told police that he kept the guns with Munir, said Devdas.
Police then conducted a drive in the same area and arrested Munir around 4:45am yesterday. They recovered two guns -- a .32 bored revolver and another was a foreign pistol -- and six bullets from his house.
Police would now examine if any of these firearms was used in the murder.
Later in the day, Bhola and Munir were sent to jail after they were produced before a Chittagong court.
'CHARACTER ASSASSINATION'
“My daughter was killed brutally. Now some media outlets have indulged in her character assassination,” said her father.
“It is deeply upsetting for a father,” said Musharraf, adding her daughter was a pious woman and tried to follow the rituals of Islam.
Babul has earned fame in his profession as Mitu always stood by him, he told this correspondent at his house yesterday.
“Just a day before the killing, Mitu told her mother to take care of Babul in Ramadan, keeping him in their house, as there was none to look after him in the officer's mess.”
Replying to a query on a news report that Babul has been given two options, “jail or quitting job”, Mosharraf said, “I asked Babul about it. He just said the truth will be come out one day and he is waiting for the day.”
Comments