A Dhaka court on Friday has granted the police four days to quiz former lawmaker MA Awal and two others in a case filed over the murder of Shahinuddin in Dhaka’s Pallabi area.
Metropolitan Magistrate Nivana Khair Jessi passed the orders after DB Inspector Syed Iftekhar Hassan, also investigating officer (IO) of the case, produced them before the court and prayed for their 10-day remand.
The two other accused are Nur Mohammad Hasan, 19, and Johirul Islam alias Babu, 27.
Awal was the mastermind of the killing while the other accused executed the murder as per his direction, according to the remand plea. The former MP had an enmity with Shahinuddin over a piece of land for a long time. Since Awal failed to grab the land, he hired the goons to kill him.
Meanwhile, one of the accused in the case, Md Manik, was killed allegedly in a gunfight with elite force RAB in Dhaka's Mirpur area on Friday.
Opposing the plea, defence lawyers submitted two separate petitions seeking bail and rejection of the remand plea. The court rejected the petitions after the hearing.
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Awal, 50, was arrested from Bhairab area in Kishoreganj on Thursday, while Hasan was arrested from the Haimchar area of Chandpur around 11:30pm on Wednesday and Babu from Bauphal in Patuakhali at 5am Thursday.
Chairman of Islami Ganatantrik Party, Awal became a lawmaker from Lakshmipur-1 constituency during 2014-18 when he was the secretary general of Bangladesh Tarikat Federation.
On May 16, the accused called Shahinuddin on his phone and asked him to come to Mirpur 12 under the pretext of resolving a land dispute.
When Shahinuddin reached the area around 4pm that day, some assailants attacked him, hacking him to death with sharp weapons in front of his seven-year-old son.
His mother Aklima Begum filed the murder case with Pallabi police station on May 17 against several people, including Awal, Sumon and Rocky.
According to the case, Awal hired people to kill Shahinuddin over the land dispute.
Speaking at a press briefing in Dhaka, Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of RAB's legal and media wing, said: “Sumon phoned Awal after murdering Shahinuddin, and said, ‘Sir, finished!’ They talked for 30 seconds.”
He told reporters that Taher, Sumon and other members of the killing group had sat with Awal four to five days before the murder.