Mitu Murder: PBI takes ex-SP Babul into custody

The Police Bureau of Investigation took former superintendent of police Babul Akter into custody yesterday for interrogation in connection with the murder of his wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu in Chattogram on June 5, 2016.

Several PBI sources said Babul was taken into the bureau's custody in Chattogram from his residence in Dhaka's Mohammadpur.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of PBI, Banaj Kumar Majumdar, told The Daily Star, "Babul is being interrogated over Mitu murder as investigators need to check some vital information."

The DIG refused to comment further.

Santosh Kumar Chakma, inspector of PBI Chattogram metro unit and also the investigation officer of the case, said, "We are interrogating him [Babul]. As he is the complainant in the case, we can interrogate him."

This is the second time Babul has been taken into police custody.

On June 25, 2016, he was interrogated in police custody for 15 hours. He was later relieved of his job on September 6, 2016.

Babul now works at a private company.

PBI took charge of the case, which Babul filed with Panchlaish Police Station against three unnamed accused, from Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) in February 2020 and started further investigation.

On June 5, 2016, Mitu was stabbed and shot dead when she was walking with her son to his school bus stop at the port city's GEC intersection.

Since the murder, Mitu's father Mosharraf Hossain has pointed the finger at Babul Akter for the killing and demanded his arrest over the murder.

Kamrul Islam Musa, the main accused in the murder case, was Babul Akter's informant, which Babul admitted during his interrogation on December 27, 2017 at CMP headquarters.

Investigators so far arrested five persons including Motaleb Mia Wasim, Anwar Hossain, firearms supplier Ehteshamul Haque alias Bhola, Md Shahjahan and Musa's elder brother Saidul Sikder Shakur.

Wasim and Anwar have given confessional statements before a court, implicating seven persons, including Musa, as directly taking part in the killing.

Of the accused, Nurul Islam Rashed and Nur Nabi, whose names were mentioned in the confessional statements by Anwar and Wasim, were killed in "gunfights" with police in July 2016 in Chattogram, while Musa and another accused, Kalu, are still "on the run".

CMP issued a red alert for the two with a bounty of Tk 5 lakh on Musa on June 29, 2016.

Although police said Musa is on the run, his wife Panna Akhter claimed that plainclothes police detained him and his brother Shakur in the port city's Bandar area on June 22, 2016, but later only Shakur was shown arrested in the case.

Police however said they only managed to nab Shakur.