SI Akbar Hossain Bhuiyan fled to India via Companiganj. When he was captured by Khashias in India he admitted that his senior officers had told him to flee.
The Bandar Bazar police outpost officer was suspended following the death of Rayhan Ahmed in police custody in Sylhet on October 11.
He is under arrest as of Monday.
He said: “After my suspension, my senior officers told me to go someplace else and that the situation can be handled after everything settles down a couple of months later.”
A video of this confession has been making the rounds on social media.
In the video, it is seen that Akbar is tied with a rope by India’s Khashias. Asked why he had killed Rayhan, he said: “Rayhan had mugged someone. That is why he was killed.”
Akbar said that he did not beat Rayhan alone; five to six other locals beat him to death. He also said that he had taken Rayhan to the hospital.
He is seen in the viral video saying his name is Akbar in response to questions from the Indians.
“You kill people for only Tk10,000,” the Khashias accused him, to which he replied: “I did not kill anyone.”
The Khashias also said that they had seen the video of Rayhan's murder on the internet. Then they tied him with a rope and handed him over to Bangladeshi cattle traders.
Also Read - Suspended SI Akbar arrested over Rayhan murder
The media officer of the district police and Additional Superintendent of police, Lutfur Rahman, said there would be a press briefing regarding SI Akbar at 5pm on Monday at the Police Superintendent’s office.
After being on the run for a month, SI Akbar, in-charge (IC) of Bandar Bazar police outpost, the main accused in Rayhan's murder, was arrested in the Dona border area of Kanaighat upazila of Sylhet.
BGB-19 Commander Lt Col Rafiqul Islam confirmed the matter.
He said locals in the Silchar area of India captured SI Akbar on Sunday. He was then handed over to local cattle traders, who handed him over to a Bangladeshi named Rahim.
Police then arrested him and brought him back from the border area.
He was brought to Kanaighat police station on Monday afternoon under the leadership of Sylhet District Police Inspector Saiful Islam.
Reporter Abdullah Al Noman of Sylhetview24.com, who was present at Kanaighat police station, said Akbar was brought to Kanaighat police station at around 2:35pm. Later he was brought to Sylhet.
Custodial death
On October 11, at around 3am, Rayhan Ahmed, 34, was taken to the Bandarbazar outpost of Katowali police station and tortured to death by a few police officers, including SI Akbar.
His wife Tahmina Akhter filed a case under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act the next day against a few unidentified people.
However, police denied the murder allegation, saying that Rayhan had been caught by locals while mugging, and was lynched.
Police said they had found Rayhan wounded from the mob lynching and then had taken him to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Following the case, an investigation committee of the metropolitan police investigated and suspended four people, including SI Akbar Hossain, in-charge of the outpost, and withdrew three others.
Akbar had been on the run since October 13. The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has so far remanded ASI Ashek Elahi for five days and constables Titu Chandra Das and Harunur Rashid for eight days in two stages.