PBI writes to UN agency office about ex-employee

Investigators of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) have now sent an official letter to local offices of a United Nations agency, seeking information about a former employee, in connection with the gruesome murder of Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of former Superintendent of Police (SP) Babul Akter.

Inspector Sontosh Kumar Chakma PBI's Chattogram metro unit, and the investigation officer (IO) of the case, sent the letter to the agency's Cox's Bazar sub-office and office in Dhaka on Tuesday, seeking information about a woman who used to work for it in 2013.

Her name came to light after Mitu's father Mosharraf Hossain on May 12 filed the murder case with Panchlaish Police Station against former SP Babul and seven others, over Mahmuda Khanam Mitu's murder in 2016.

In the case statement, Mosharraf alleged that Babul was involved in extramarital affairs with the woman while he was in Cox's Bazar as an Additional SP there.  However, the woman's name is not mentioned as accused in the case.

Mosharraf alleged that Mitu had been mentally and physically tortured by Babul before killing, after she had come to learn of the extramarital affair.

Asked about the letter, Sontosh Kumar told The Daily Star, "For the sake of investigation of Mitu murder case, we have sent a letter to the UN agency's offices seeking some information about her."

However, he refused to disclose further information in this regard.

According to PBI sources,  PBI asked the international organisation to provide the woman's full address, phone number, passport number and a copy of passport, her former address in Cox's Bazar, and her movement registers in Cox's Bazar.

Babul got two books -- "Taliban" written by Ahmed Rashid and "Best Kept Secret" by Jeffery Archer -- as gifts from the woman in 2013, and he reportedly wrote about his extramarital affair on different pages of the books, said PBI sources.

The books were seized from Babul, now in jail, after his father-in-law filed the case with Panchlaish Police Station against him and eight others, investigators said. Babul is now behind bars, while three others were shown arrested in this case.

On June 5, 2016, Mitu was stabbed and shot dead while she was taking her son to his school-bus stop at the port city's GEC intersection. After the murder, Babul filed a case against three unidentified men with Panchlaish Police Station.

On May 11 this year, the Chattogram PBI summoned Babul to its office for questioning over the murder.  He failed to give satisfactory answers to the detectives and was taken into PBI custody. The following day, Mitu's father filed a murder case against Babul and seven others.