Rapid Action Battalion-1 (RAB-1) has arrested the driver of a vehicle allegedly used to dump the body of a man on the Dhaka Elevated Expressway.
The arrestee was identified as Sohel Rana, 40. RAB-1 said he was arrested in the capital’s Mohakhali area on Saturday.
Police had earlier identified the vehicle used to dump the body of Ismail Hossain, 50, and said they were working to identify those involved in the incident.
Ismail’s body was recovered from the Dhaka Elevated Expressway by Banani police on Friday. His mouth was wrapped in scotch tape, and he was wearing a blue shirt and lungi similar to clothing commonly worn by autorickshaw drivers.
Police suspect Ismail was strangled to death before his body was transported and dumped on the expressway.
Ismail, a resident of Kashimpur in Gazipur, had been returning from his village home in Jamalpur with money from the sale of land for his daughter’s wedding.
After being informed by police, relatives went to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Saturday and identified the body.
Ismail was the son of Jalal Uddin of Jamalpur Sadar upazila.
His son Hasan said Ismail had Tk 5 lakh and two mobile phones with him when he left Jamalpur. The money and phones were missing when his body was found.
Relatives said Ismail’s only daughter, Sharmin, was due to get married. He had sold land in his village to arrange the wedding and was returning to Gazipur to finalize the wedding date.
Hasan said his father left Jamalpur for Gazipur at around 3:30am on Thursday. He called Hasan at around 11pm and said he would arrive in the morning.
“He was returning to Gazipur to finalize the arrangements for my younger sister Sharmin’s wedding. He was supposed to set the wedding date after returning home,” Hasan said.
He said his father had sold 11% of land in the village for Tk 10.5 lakh for Sharmin’s wedding. He paid Tk 2 lakh to repay a loan and spent some of the money building a house in the village.
“He was returning to Gazipur with the remaining Tk 5 lakh in cash and some groceries. He also had an Android phone and a button phone. They were not found,” Hasan said.
Hasan said his father was supposed to get off at Jirani in Gazipur on Friday morning. He went there and called his father several times but found his phone switched off.
Later, Banani police informed Jamalpur police about the matter. Hasan then went to DMCH and identified his father’s body.
Nazrul Islam Talukdar, a sub-inspector of Banani police station, said Ismail’s identity was confirmed by matching his fingerprints with the National Identity Card database.
Citing relatives, Nazrul said Ismail had worked as a security guard at Delta Spinning Mill but left the job nine months ago due to illness. He lived with his wife, two children and daughter-in-law in Kashimpur, Gazipur.
Ismail had gone to his village home in Jamalpur about four months ago, where his mother and elder sister live.
“We suspect that he was strangled to death and the body was brought in a vehicle and dumped. We are collecting closed-circuit television camera footage to identify the vehicle. The victim’s family has filed a case,” Nazrul said.
Faridul Islam, officer-in-charge of Banani police station, told Dhaka Tribune that police had identified the vehicle used to dump Ismail’s body and flee the scene.
He said identifying the vehicle would help investigators determine who was involved in the incident.