Pieces of flesh found in septic tank of Kolkata apartment complex where Bangladeshi MP was murdered

Dhaka/New Delhi: Pieces of flesh have been found in the septic tank of the apartment complex in Kolkata where Awami League parliamentarian Anwarul Azim Anar was murdered, police said on Wednesday.

“Some pieces of flesh have been found in the septic tank of the Sanjeeva Gardens apartment complex. It cannot be confirmed without DNA tests if they are from MP Anar’s body,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman told bdnews24.com.

Habibur said he had learnt about the discovery from Bangladesh Detective Branch officials currently conducting the investigation in India.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder of the Jhenaidah-4 MP in Kolkata.

Bangladesh police said the MP had been killed in a Kolkata apartment after travelling to India for medical treatment.

Citing the suspects, police said the assailants chopped Anar’s body into small pieces and disposed of them in different locations.

The mastermind behind the killing, Akhtaruzzaman alias Shahin Mia - a US citizen - has fled to America, police said.

Although the motive is still not confirmed, police have mentioned a business dispute between Shahin and Anar in a remand plea.

Media reports suggest that the two were involved in gold smuggling.

Harunor Rashid, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch, is heading a team of investigators in Kolkata.

During a visit to the crime scene on Monday, they brought along Jihad Hawlader, a Bangladeshi suspect arrested in India, to show where the body parts of the MP had been dumped.

Siddheshwar Mandal, a gardener of Sanjeeva Gardens, said in an interview with three Dhaka-based TV stations that he had seen “three to four kg of flesh” being recovered from the septic tank.

The pieces were “this small” – he showed with his thumb and index finger. In his words, the size was “pakoda cut”.

He added that the pieces had been flushed through the toilet of the apartment.

Bhushon Shikari, a cleaner who recovered the pieces from the tank, is a brother-in-law of Siddheshwar.

“How can so much flesh end up in a septic tank? These must be the MP’s flesh. Otherwise, police wouldn’t have recovered those.”

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Habibur Rahman said that, despite identifying the killers of MP Anwarul Azim, it is not yet clear why he was killed.

Habib said, “Those who were involved in the murder have already been identified. Some of them have been arrested. Recovering the body was a big deal. A team of ours has gone to Kolkata and their main objective is to find and identify the body. I learned from the Indian police that some meat was recovered from the septic tank of the house where the murder took place on Tuesday. We will know whether it belongs to our member of parliament Anwarul Azim only after a DNA test.”