4 more arrested, 3 confess
Detectives have arrested four alleged members of a blackmailing gang, which killed Mamun Imran Khan, inspector of special branch of police, and subsequently burnt his body.
Three of them confessed to the crime yesterday, while the other was placed on a three-day remand by a court.
The extortionist gang killed Mamun after finding out his professional identity, after they started blackmailing him and his friend Rahmat Ullah in a Banani flat on July 8, said Abdul Baten, an additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Rahmat was not involved in the killing but aided the gang members in hiding the body in Gazipur, Baten said while briefing at DMP media centre yesterday.
Arrested on July 10, Rahmat gave confessional statement before a Dhaka Court on Wednesday.
The four others -- Mizan Sheikh, Meherunnessa Swarna alias Afrin, Suraiya Akter Keya and Fariya Binte Mim -- were arrested by detectives also on Wednesday in the capital's Baddda and Hazaribagh areas.
Of them, Mizan, Afrin and Mim confessed to the crime in confessional statements after they were produced before separate courts. A Dhaka court granted a three-day remand to police for quizzing Keya, after the law enforcers sought a 10-day remand against her.
Police said at least four more suspects are on the run.
Afrin, a former co-artiste of Rahmat in a TV serial, invited him to attend a birthday party of her friend in the Banani flat on July 8, Baten said.
Mamun also went to the flat on his motorcycle, being invited by Rahmat, who went there by his own car.
Within minutes of their entry, four to five males including the fugitive suspects entered the flat and identified them as “men of administration”. They claimed that Mamun and Rahmat were engaged in "immoral activities" with the girls, and threatened to call journalists and make their pictures with the girls public, the police officer said.
As Mamun showed his professional ID, the male gang members tied up both Mamun and Rahmat. They beat up Mamun after they found out his identity, leaving him dead on the spot, Baten said.
The DMP official said Rahmat was the initial target of the gang members, as Afrin did not invite Mamun. The gang members also informed the incident to Rabiul, a member of the group who used to look after the flat.
To hide the body, the gang initially thought of drowning it in a water body, or dumping in the jungle, but eventually decided to burn so that it cannot be identified, detective officials said. Rabiul followed them on a bike. Baten said the gang members put the body in a sack and took it to Gazipur in Rahmat's car with Rahmat behind the wheel. They took petrol from a petrol pump there, and burnt the body using the fuel in a secluded area.
Detective officials said the gang has rented 7-8 flats in different parts of the capital to conduct illegal activities, and often blackmailed its victims. The flats were rented by a suspect named Nazrul Islam.
Mamun was posted to different police stations in Dhaka and Chittagong since 2006 before he was transferred to the special branch.
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