Conflicting versions of Wari murder crop up

Family members of a man whose body was found by police by chance on Thursday said the woman with whom he had an affair had killed him because he wanted to break up.

A police team looking for the woman in connection with a general diary unexpectedly ended up at the scene of the gruesome murder of Sajib Hasan, 35, at an apartment near Sayedabad Bus Terminal in the capital.

Naznin Akter, an aunt of Sajib, said Sajib met Shahnaz Parveen, 52, in a bus 11 years ago while returning to Dhaka from his village home in Kushtia.

Not long after they met each other, Sajib took her to a relative's house in Gazipur and introduced her as his wife. During the visit, Shahnaz identified herself as an officer of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said Naznin while talking to this correspondent at Sir Salimullah Medical College (SSMC) morgue yesterday.

She added that couple said they lived in Chattogram because Shahnaz worked there.

Sajib's uncle Nazrul Islam filed a case accusing Shahnaz of killing Sajib with Wari Police Station yesterday, said Officer-in-Charge Azizur Rahman.

At the scene of the murder on Thursday, police found transport worker Sajib's body cut into five pieces.

Earlier last week, Shahnaz's husband, who is a wealthy businessman, lodged a diary with the police station stating that his wife went missing with gold ornaments.

Policemen found that Shahnaz's phone was last used in an apartment of a building on KM Das Lane near Sayedabad Bus Terminal and located her there.

Cops were talking to her at the door of an apartment when one of the officers noticed parts of a human body by the side of a bed in the living room. She then admitted to police that she had killed the man that morning.

SSMC morgue employees told this newspaper that Sajib was killed by a sharp weapon and that his limbs were cut at the joints.

Sajib's uncle Nazrul said, "Shahnaz and Sajib visited our house a dozen times in the last 11 years. Around three to four months ago, Shahnaz told us to buy Sajib's land and house in Kushtia for Tk 20 lakh.

"But they left when we demanded that the land be registered to us. Actually, Sajib's mother Surjo Banu would not agree to sell the property."

Nazrul claimed that Sajib wanted to break up with her at least twice before. She once went to Sajib's village home in Khusita and brought him back to Dhaka.

On the day of the killing, Shahnaz called Sajib's mother around 11:30am and said she and Sajib were leaving for Canada and sent her Tk 1,000 and asked her not to worry, Nazrul siad.

But Shahnaz didn't let Surjo Banu speak to Sajib and switched off the phone instead.

Surjo Banu learnt about her son's death around 2:00pm from police, Nazrul added.

During interrogation, Shahnaz told police that Sajib convinced her to leave her home with money and gold ornaments so that they can settle somewhere and start a business.

When Shahnaz went to the apartment on KM Das Lane with around 20 vori of gold, Sajib tried to take the gold away from her, she said.

Around 10:00am on Thursday, Sajib first attacked Shahnaz with a hammer and then with a knife, she said, adding that she was somehow able to get hold of the knife and in self defense stabbed Sajib on the stomach, Shah Iftekhar Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Wari Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, who was present during the interrogation, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Shahnaz also told police that Sajib used to stalk one of her two daughters. Shahnaz first contacted him to ask him to stop the stalking. But eventually Sajib seduced her and later blackmailed her into having a relationship with him, said the DC.

"We saw marks of injuries caused by a hammer and a knife on Shanaz's body. She said those were from Sajib's attack."

Shahnaz confessed to killing Sajib before a court yesterday evening after she was placed on a 10-day remand.