A travel ban will soon be imposed on veteran journalist Moazzem Hossain Nannu’s wife Shahina Hossain Pallabi while his mysterious death is being investigated.
On condition of anonymity, a police official from the Gulshan Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) confirmed the report of the ban and the investigation.
He also said the police had been receiving allegations from different sources to the effect that Nannu might have been the victim of a planned murder and that the law enforcers were looking into the allegations.
To conduct the investigation properly, the deceased journalist’s wife Pallabi will be prohibited from leaving the country.
Sudeep Kumar Chakraborty, deputy commissioner of DMP, Gulshan Division, told Dhaka Tribune: “We have found contradictory statements over the fire that killed Nannu.”
Four separate committees have been formed to investigate this mysterious death, he added.
The DMP Gulshan Division formed a three-member committee headed by an additional deputy commissioner; the two other members are assistant commissioner of Badda zone and the officer-in-charge of Badda police station.
“We have requested the apartment developer, Fire Service and Civil Defence authority, and the Criminal Investigation Department’s Crime Scene Unit to investigate the matter independently, and have sought their opinions,” said Sudeep.
“On June 20, a CID team visited the spot and collected some evidence. Similarly, a fire service team also recorded the statements of eyewitnesses, the wife of the journalist and the driver and collected necessary evidence,” he added.
“We have requested both these teams to clarify whether it was an explosion or a common fire,” he said.
“Police have also been investigating the cause of death. We will be able to say whether or not there was any conspiracy behind the incident after the investigation is over,” the police official stated.
He added that since the name of Sirajul Amin, a partner in a multi-level marketing (MLM) company, had come up in connection with the incident, he would also be called for interrogation.
Mysteries and coincidences
The Daily Jugantor’s Chief Crime Reporter, Moazzem Hossain Nannu, 53, breathed his last on June 13 at around 8:20am at Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute, after sustaining burn injuries on 60% of his body in a fire at his home in Dhaka’s Aftabnagar area on June 12.
Just around six months ago, on January 2, Nannu’s son Shapnil Ahmed Piash, 24, also died in a fire in the same room, reportedly caused by a short circuit.
After Nannu's death, his wife Pallabi informed Dhaka Tribune that he had returned home from his office at around 1:30am on June 12.
She said their son's room had mostly remained closed since he passed away but they would go to the room from time to time to relive their memories of him.
Nannu opened the door to his son’s room at around 3:30am that day. As soon as he pressed a switch to turn on the light, there was a loud explosion, she added.
“Nannu, then in a burnt state, immediately went to the bathroom and poured water over himself. He had tried to douse the fire himself but the neighbours came and took him to the hospital,” Pallabi said.
She also mentioned that there was a smell of gas in the flat.
“Gas technicians were brought in a few days before the incident and they checked the line several times. They said the gas could have formed in the bathroom commode,” Pallabi said.
The technicians said there was nothing wrong with the gas line and the smell might have been coming from the bathroom, she added.
In the general diary that Pallabi filed with the Badda police station, she mentioned that Nannu had come home at around 3:30am that day, contradicting her previous statement.
Amid the speculations, Nannu’s colleagues said he had left his office at around 12am and it usually took him less than 15 minutes to reach his house.
As his wife, in the GD, claimed Nannu had reached home at around 3:30am, his whereabouts between leaving the office and reaching his home were yet to be confirmed.
The bathroom and kitchen of Nannu's house were not damaged by the fire and his wife did not suffer any injuries at all.
The Crime Reporters Association of Bangladesh (CRAB) also formed a nine-member investigation committee, headed by senior journalist Aminur Rahman Taj, to look further into the nature of Nannu’s death.
One of the committee members noted that the circumstances surrounding Nannu and his only son Piash’s death were very similar.
A fire had broken out in the same room of the same house at around midnight six months earlier, he mentioned.
“This is unbelievable and mysterious. CRAB wants a proper investigation of his death,” he added.
Veteran journalist Nannu was an executive member of Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU).
He had previously worked at daily Ajker Kagoj and was with Daily Jugantar for a long time. From there he joined Global Television before returning to Daily Jugantor.