MP Liton murder: Could Chandan be the snake in the grass?

According to local politicians, Chandan, originally a close associate of Liton, had lately joined the camp of Jatiya Party leader Col (retd) Abdul Quader Khan, the former Gaibandha lawmaker who is the self-confessed mastermind of the killing. Chandan is nowhere to be found and police believe he may have fled to India. Investigators are certain that Chandan was near Liton’s home in Bamandanga village on the day of the killing. A source said that two days into the investigation, while scanning all calls made at and near the crime scene, police found Chandan’s number making calls from the vicinity of a tree near Liton’s home. One call was made around one-and-a-half hours before and another about the same time after the murder. Police started looking for the man and immediately realised he was nowhere to be found. Another source said that from the police headquarters, investigators learned that the number was last used in Kurigram on January 5, five days after the murder. It has been switched off since then. After a newspaper published a report saying Chandan made phone calls to Quader, Chandan sent a mail to local journalists, addressing the district police chief, where he claimed that the report was false. He had never been in communication with Quader, he claimed. Quader had taken his name in his confession to take revenge for old grievances, he claimed. Gaibandha Additional Superintendent of Police Rabiul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that they did not receive any such mail.Chandan’s shifting allegiancesJatiya Party leader Abu Sayeed told the Dhaka Tribune that Chandan used to be very close to MP Liton and had reportedly filed complaints at the regional office of the Anti-Corruption Commission against the then-lawmaker Quader to help Liton’s cause. “Quader was later acquitted but the damage had been done. This contributed to Quader’s defeat to Liton in the 2013 election,” he said. Jahangir Alam Suja, former chairman of Dhobadanga Union Parishad, said that after Liton became MP, Chandan became office secretary in upazila Awami League. “But he became reckless and started extorting from everyone. This angered the MP. He threw Chandan out from the upazila committee,” he said. This incident turned the man against his patron. He filed several complaints at the ACC against Liton. In retaliation, local Awami League activists gave Chandan a good beating. Suja said Chandan approached Quader’s Personal Secretary AJM Shamsujjoha to put him in touch with the former lawmaker. He assisted Quader in getting acquittal in the four ACC cases, he claimed. “Since then Chandan had a good relation with Quader.” AJM Shamsujjoha could not be reached on Monday after several attempts. His acquaintances and employees refused to give out his phone number, but said police had already collected it.