Death of College Girl: Instigation behind ‘suicide’

Primary evidence suggests that there was instigation behind the death of a college student whose sister filed a case against Bashundhara Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir, police said yesterday.

Anvir has been accused in the case of abetting her suicide at a Gulshan flat on April 26.

He failed to secure anticipatory bail from the High Court yesterday, a day after seeking anticipatory bail from the court through his lawyers.

The HC bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman refused to hear any of the anticipatory bail petitions on the cause list stating that the bench has no jurisdiction to hear such petitions.

The HC bench said it would not entertain any anticipatory bail petitions due to the pandemic and restrictions.

"Some anticipatory bail petitions have wrongly been included in the cause list for hearing today," Justice Mamnoon Rahman told lawyers at the beginning of the proceedings of the bench.

Anvir did not appear before the HC bench, said his lawyer Md Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury.

Sudip Chakrabarty, deputy commissioner (Gulshan division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, yesterday told reporters that immigration police checked two passports of Anvir and said he had not left the country after April 26.

"There was no direct suicide note… but she [the victim] wrote about her extreme emotional distress and frustration in her diaries," said the DC.

Chakrabarty quoted a diary entry, saying, "You [the accused] will see tomorrow and feel me in your heart."

He said, "It is very important and similar to a suicide note.

"After we went to the crime scene, we found a picture of the victim and the accused on the wall and her frustration and distress was written in her diaries. It seemed to us that a promising 21-year-old woman did not die by suicide without a reason or instigation."

He said another important clue is that on the morning of April 26, the victim told her sister, who lodged the case, over the phone about "serious consequences" and said anything might happen any time.

After checking digital footprints, the victim's mobile phones and CCTV footage, the police have found evidence that the accused used to visit the flat, he said.

But police have not found any proof of Anvir visiting the flat on the day of the incident or the day before.

The police will interrogate everyone mentioned in the case as well as the ones whose names will come up in the investigation, Chakrabarty said.

About threats made to the victim's family, the DC said police have looked into the matter.

"We are in touch with the family and will provide all them with security."

He refuted allegations that police were not arresting the accused because of his influence. It could just have been an unnatural death, but the case is at this stage because of police promptness.

"On the basis of evidence collected immediately from the spot, police convinced the family to file the case over instigation of suicide."

On Monday night, police recovered the body of the college student of Cumilla at a rented flat in Gulshan.

The following day, her sister sued Bashundhara Group MD Anvir.

According to the complaint, Anvir developed a relationship with the victim and promised to marry her.