Former police officer Babul Akter’s family say they were unaware of his extramarital affair with an Indian NGO worker as claimed by his father-in-law in a case filed on Wednesday.
Babul’s father Abdul Wadud told Bangla Tribune that Mosharraf Hossain, Babul’s father-in-law, had never brought such an allegation ever since the brutal murder of his daughter Mahmuda Akter Mitu in 2016.
“But five years after the murder, he [Mosharraf] is making whimsical remarks. We do not know why he is doing so; we have nothing to say. Allah knows what exactly happened then and He will try the matter,” Wadud said on Thursday.
Mosharraf filed the case against Babul and seven others with Panchlaish police on Wednesday, hours after the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) in its final report concluded that Babul had chalked the plan to kill his wife.
The case says former superintendent of police (SP) Babul developed an illicit affair with an NGO worker of Indian origin.
After filing the case, Mosharraf said: “I said earlier that Babul has an involvement in my daughter’s murder and now I came here to file a case against him.”
On Wednesday, PBI chief Banaj Kumar Majumder said: “We have found evidence that Babul Akter was involved in the murder of his wife Mitu.”
Also Read - Father-in-law sues ex-SP Babul Akter over wife Mitu's murder
When the relation between Babul and Mitu worsened, the matter was reported to their guardians, Mosharraf mentioned in the case.
But Wadud said that they had never been told about such a matter. “Never were we informed about the dispute between Babul and Mitu centering another woman. Mitu perhaps did not tell us as she was embarrassed.
“However, her parents could have told us that. They, too, did not tell us anything about the matter. In brief, we never knew about Babul’s so-called affair,” he said.
“Babul used to stay in Gazipur. I was a jobholder too, working as a sub-inspector. I am retired now, and have already performed Hajj thrice. Babul and his family stay far from us. We have no idea about their family feud.”
In the morning of June 5, 2016, Mitu was hacked and shot dead near the GEC Intersection in Chittagong, when she was on her way to drop her son to the school.
Immediately after the grisly murder, investigators said militants might have settled a score against Babul as he conducted several successful anti-terrorism drives. However, they said later that professional killers were behind it and that one Kamrul Islam Musa, alias Musa Sikdar, had hired them and plotted the murder.
Babul was in Dhaka at the time to join Police Headquarters after being promoted. Just before that he was stationed in Chittagong.
Also Read - Mitu murder case accused Shaku held
He lodged a case accusing unidentified persons with the Panchlaish police in the port city. However, the PBI found his involvement in the killing while investigating into the case.
The PBI has recently submitted a 575-age probe report to a court, revealing that the criminal act was actually a “’contract killing” masterminded by Babul himself. The former SP had spent Tk300,000 for the murder.
On Tuesday, Babul was interrogated at the Mansurabad PBI Chittagong Metropolitan Office.
Babul was relieved of his duties on September 6, 2016, days after he submitted a resignation letter.
According to the case, while stationed in Cox’s Bazar as an additional SP, Babul got familiar with the female NGO worker and afterwards, they developed a romantic affair. She used to text him, and Mitu saw some of them on his mobile phone.
As the dispute between Babul and Mitu worsened, he devised the plan to get her killed.
A month before the murder, Babul travelled to China to receive training. Mitu then found two books the woman had gifted to Babul. On several pages of the books they wrote letters addressing one another. Through the development, Mitu came to know their close relation.
