SI Akram’s family claims Babul Akter planned his murder

“After Akram succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), Bonni took the body and did not allow the doctors to perform a post-mortem examination even though the body bore wounds from sharp weapons,” Akram’s sister Jannat Ara Parveen Rini told the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday. She claimed that Babul’s cousin Sademul Islam Moon executed the murder plot hatched by Babul and Bonni, who supposedly had an extramarital relationship. Akram’s family held a press conference at Jhenaidah Press Club on Friday demanding Babul’s arrest. Akram was severely wounded when miscreants attacked him with sharp weapons in Shailkupa, Jhenaidah on December 28, 2014. He breathed his last on January 13, 2015 at the DMCH. “Police initially tried to label it as a road accident. The then Shailkupa OC Hashem Khan did not record the case we wanted to file accusing Babul, Bonni, Moon and others of planning the murder. Then we went to the district’s SP Altaf Hossain. But he too asked us to drop Babul’s name,” she alleged. Akram’s family later filed the case with a Jhenaidah court accusing Moon, Bonni and her parents. There is no progress in the investigation, according to Shailkupa police. Rini further claimed that Babul and Bonni had known each other long before he married Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, who was stabbed and shot to death in Chittagong city on June 5 last year. Regarding Babul’s link to Akram murder, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Saturday told reporters that he would be arrested if police found any concrete evidence against him. “The administration will work as per the law,” he said. The minister also added that police had not found any evidence to prove that Babul was involved in Mitu murder. Babul’s father-in-law Md Mosharraf Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune on Saturday that he now suspected Babul’s involvement in the murders of his daughter and Akram. Rini met Mosharraf in January and claimed the alleged affair between Babul and Bonni to be the reason behind Akram’s murder. Babul has always denied the allegations. In a Facebook post on January 31, he claimed that he was in South Sudan when the attack on Akram took place. He also said he had no cousin named Sademul Islam Moon. He did not receive calls when the Dhaka Tribune contacted him on Saturday. Rini said: “Akram married Bonni in 2005, but she always maintained communication with Babul. They used to talk over phone when Akram was abroad in a UN peacekeeping mission. “My brother understood everything but kept quiet. He told me that Babul and Bonni knew each other and that things would be all right after a while.” After Akram’s return from the UN mission, they bought a flat in Dhaka’s Moghbazar area. One day, Bonni went to her paternal house in Jhenaidah after having an argument with Akram. “When Akram contacted Bonni after a few days, she told him to come to Jhenaidah via Jamuna Bridge and take her to Dhaka with him. “When my brother reached Bardha of Shailkupa on his motorcycle on December 28, 2014, some miscreants attacked him with sharp weapons. We found him in critical condition,” Rini said. Akram was first taken to Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital and then to Faridpur Sadar Hospital as his condition deteriorated. Doctors then advised that he be transferred to the DMCH for better treatment, where he later died. “Bonni seemed indifferent when Akram was undergoing treatment. She behaved mysteriously,” Rini said. “Her family did not attend his janaza and instead went to Babul’s Magura house.” She claimed that after the case was filed, Babul tried to influence the investigation and it remained stalled for a long time. Shailkupa police station OC Tariqul Islam said he had no idea about the progress in Akram murder investigation. When contacted on Saturday, he said he had heard that there had been constant pressure from the police high-ups not to make Babul an accused in the case.