Key accused still at large

Nearly two months have elapsed, police are yet to arrest the main accused in connection with the case for killing a physically challenged man in Sadar upazila in December last year.

Earlier on December 25 last year, physically challenged Mozammel Hossain Babul, 50, a small grocer in Kalyanpur area in Sadar upazila, was killed by his rivals allegedly over a land dispute.

The following day, Babul's wife Sheuly Akter filed a murder case with Kotwali Police Station accusing seven people, while Suruj Ali, 35, a Chowkidar of Khagdahor union parishad (UP), was made the prime accused in the case.

On January 27, a police team led by Inspector (Operation) Wazed Ali of Kotwali Police Station conducted a raid in Gazipur and arrested Suruj's wife Elma Begum, 30, also one of the accused in the case.

After primary interrogation, police produced her before a Mymensingh court the same day.

After recording her confessional statement under Section 164, the court sent her to jail, the Inspector said.

Slain Babul's wife Sheuly, who works as a domestic help in the capital, said Babul lost his right leg in a road accident in Dhaka in 1995.

He later returned to his native village in 2007, and had been running a grocery shop adjacent to his house since then.

During their stay in Dhaka, key accused in the case Suruj and his accomplices grabbed Babul's three decimals of land out of his 16 decimals of homestead.

Moreover, Suruj and his men were threatening Babul and his family members with dire consequences in a bid to grab his entire homestead.

Sheuly, mother of three children, alleged that her husband lodged several general diaries (GDs) with Kotwali Police Station and also informed the local UP chairman and members but no steps were taken in this regard.

On January 23, slain Babul's family members and relatives arranged a press conference at Mymensingh Press Club, demanding immediate arrest and their exemplary punishment of the accused in the murder case.

Khagdahor UP Chairman Anwar Hossain Nannu said he failed to make any official process against Suruj due to retirement of the UP secretary.