Police yesterday arrested the mastermind of the murder of Japanese woman Hiroe Miyata.
Zakir Patwary Ratan was arrested at the border with India, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal yesterday.
The minister did not say when the arrest was made but he told reporters on Saturday night that Ratan had been arrested in India and the Indian government would hand him over to Bangladesh police on Sunday (yesterday).
The arrestee, a business partner of the sexagenarian victim, is believed to have killed her over business interests.
Police sources said Ratan was arrested in Kolkata three days ago by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and was brought to Bangladesh yesterday.
Hiroe Miyata was first reported missing when Kosuke Matsunaga, vice-consul of the Japanese embassy in Bangladesh, lodged a general diary with Uttara police station (east) on November 19. It was mentioned in the general diary that she could not be reached over the phone since October 26.
The embassy acted after Miyata’s mother Makiko Harabayashi notified them from Japan that she was not able to contact her daughter.
Police launched an investigation after the general diary was filed and confirmed after four days that the woman had actually been murdered.
On November 24, police arrested five people in this connection, who were remanded for four days each and are now behind bars.
An investigation source said police made several attempts to arrest Ratan but he had somehow managed to escape every time.
Police were later informed that Ratan had fled to the Indian state of West Bengal and the investigating officer gave the CID Ratan’s phone number to arrest him.
The CID arrested Ratan and handed him over to Bangladesh police via Benapole land port yesterday, sources said.
Miyata lived in a flat of a building named City Homes in Uttara and an employee of the building said six people could be involved in the murder.