The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), Dhaka district, has arrested two men, including the alleged main assailant, over the killing of auto-rickshaw driver Md Sujon Howlader, 29, whose throat was slit under the under-construction Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway in Ashulia. The agency said it identified and arrested the accused within less than 24 hours of setting out to solve the case after the body was recovered. The charges have not been tested in court.
Those arrested are Md Maruf Dhali, 39, son of Md Harun Dhali of Shastal village in Kalkini upazila, Madaripur, who had been living at a garage in the Baganbari Syednagar area of Lalbagh, Dhaka; and Tanvir Dhali alias Akash, 22, son of Md Azizul Dhali of the same village. The PBI alleges Maruf was directly involved in the killing, while Tanvir had bought the victim’s stolen auto-van from him. Both have given confessional statements to a court under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
According to the PBI, the victim, Sujon Howlader, was the son of Md Amir Howlader of Kuripaika village in Lohalia union, Patuakhali Sadar, and made his living driving an auto-van while renting a house in the Aganagar area of Keraniganj Model thana, Dhaka. On 8 August, at about 5pm, Sujon left home with his auto-van. He last spoke to his wife by phone at about 9pm, after which his mobile was switched off. His family searched for him without success, and two days later, on 10 August at about 10:30am, his body was recovered from between pillars 81/1 and 81/2 of the under-construction expressway, beside the Ashulia-Abdullahpur road.
The body had a crushing injury to the head and marks of a sharp weapon on the throat. The victim’s mother, Alo Begum, filed a murder case against unidentified people at Ashulia thana, and on 11 August the PBI took over the investigation on its own initiative, appointing inspector Md Jamal Uddin as the investigating officer.
A crime-scene team collected evidence, and investigators analysed fingerprints and other technical information while pursuing the case. After confirming the victim’s identity, they gathered information on the time of his disappearance, his last mobile contact, people known to him and the movement of the auto-van. Combined analysis of technical and intelligence information led them to Maruf, and by following the movement of the auto-van a PBI team arrested Maruf and Tanvir at about 8:30am on 11 August at an auto garage in the Madaripur Sadar thana area, recovering the stolen auto-van and, from Maruf, the victim’s mobile phone.
According to the PBI’s investigation and the accused men’s court statements, Maruf, himself an auto-van driver, was previously known to Sujon. On the night of 8 August the two met in the Mohammadpur area and travelled to Kashimpur in Gazipur; the next day, after loading goods, they set off for Lalbagh, but the auto-van broke down near the Ashulia bridge and they took shelter beneath the under-construction expressway.
According to investigators, the two then took the drug yaba, and Sujon fell asleep. Maruf fetched a cleaver from the auto-van, struck the sleeping Sujon on the head with a heavy stone at about 12:30pm on 9 August, and then cut his throat to make sure he was dead. He threw the cleaver into water, left the body and drove off with the auto-van and mobile phone, and the next morning drove to Madaripur, where he sold the auto-van to Tanvir for 90,000 taka. Acting on Maruf’s account, investigators later recovered the cleaver used in the killing from near the scene.
PBI Dhaka district superintendent of police M N Morshed said that, after receiving news of the killing, the crime-scene team had visited the spot, identified the victim through fingerprints and begun a discreet investigation, and that relentless work had made it possible to identify and arrest the two involved within less than 24 hours. The PBI said the investigation was continuing and that anyone else found involved would also face legal action.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report