A dispute between Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar and his partner, Md Akhtaruzzaman alias Shaheen, over massive profits from a gold smuggling operation may have led to Anar’s cold-blooded murder and the gruesome disposal of his body to cover up the crime.
Bangladeshi media outlets citing the nation’s intelligence officials, said the MP and Shaheen were partners in the trans-border gold bar smuggling operation which smuggled gold-bars into India.
Anwarul Azim Anar represented the Jhenaidah-4 in Khulna division of Bangladesh. Nadia in Bengal borders Khulna district. Shaheen also has a political background as he is the younger brother of the mayor of Kotchandpur Municipality in Jhenaidah.
Shaheen is also a US citizen. “We will seek help from Interpol to bring back Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen, the fugitive “mastermind” of Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar murder,” said Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Detective Branch (DB) chief Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid, who is also additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
The same claims were made by West Bengal police officials this week. The West Bengal CID officials on Saturday claimed that an angle of gold smuggling could be a possible reason behind the killing.
The rift between Anwarul Azim Anar and his childhood friend Shaheen began some time last year when the MP demanded more cuts.
Akhtaruzzaman Shaheen, a childhood friend of the slain lawmaker, rejected the proposal but was left furious when he found out that the MP had taken control of the entire smuggling proceeds, estimated to be around Rs 80 crore.
After Shaheen’s discovery, their friendship turned into deep-seated anger and hatred.
Police in Bangladesh suspect that other influential people involved in the racket may have been involved in the plan to murder Azim as he took control over the gold smuggling racket.
The Times of India in a report said that Azim staked a claim in the gold trafficking racket after being elected MP in 2014. He had planned the ousting of another political leader and two influential businessmen from Jhenaidah from the illegal smuggling racket to fortify his position.
Police in Bangladesh are probing if they too had joined Shaheen in planning Azim’s murder, the newspaper said. It also said that the plan to kill Azim was hatched between February and April 2024.
It said that Shaheen gathered an execution squad consisting of Shimul Bhuiyan Aman alias Amanullah Syed; Celesty Rahman, a woman who police suspect honey-trapped Azim and lured him into visiting the Newtown flat where the MP visited; Tanvir Bhuiyan who allegedly assisted in smothering Azim to death and Jihad Hawladar, a Bangladeshi butcher who was illegally working in Mumbai, who was brought in to ensure the disposal and disappearance of the body.
According to the Kolkata police, circumstantial evidence indicated that the MP was first strangled and killed after which his body was chopped into pieces and dumped in different areas. Traces of his body or body parts are yet to be found.
The suspect Shaheen is alleged to have paid Rs 4 crore to the group to execute Azim while ensuring that the corpse disappears.
Bangladeshi investigators are also alleging that Gopal Biswas, a resident of Baranagar in north Kolkata and an acquaintance of the Bangladeshi politician, who filed a complaint with the local police on May 18 after the slain MP disappeared, was friends with him on account of the illegal gold trade.
The MP initially lived in Biswas’ flat after arrival in Kolkata on May 12. Biswas is also a gold trader but has denied his involvement in illegal gold transactions.
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