Three persons, including a sacked assistant engineer of Gazipur City Corporation (GCC), have been charged for the murder of an executive engineer of the city corporation.
Turag police station Inspector Sheikh Mifizul Islam, the investigating officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka in late May.
The prime accused, GCC’s former assistant engineer Anisur Rahman Selim alias Anis Hawlader, masterminded the killing of Delwar Hossain for the latter’s vigorous protests over his irregularities, reads the charge sheet.
The other accused, Selim’s aide Helal Hawlader Shahin and microbus driver Habibur Rahman Khan Habib, carried out Hawlader’s instructions, it adds.
Sub-Inspector Md Jalal Uddin, general recording officer (GRO) of the CMM court, said the charge sheet was submitted on May 21, mentioning 33 prosecution witnesses.
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It is to be noted that Selim, while giving his confessional statement in May last year, described how he planned and had Delwar killed. Shahin and Habib recently confessed to being linked to the assassination.
Delwar Hossain was an executive engineer of the Konabari zone of GCC. Police recovered his body on May 11 from the Beribadh area under Turag police station in the capital.
Later, his widow Khadiza Akhter filed the case with Turag police station over the incident.
She claimed that Delwar was murdered as he did not help the corrupt officials and contractors in the office.
According to the investigators, Delwar was transferred to GCC in 2015 from Narayanganj City Corporation and was assigned as the regional engineer of Konabari area in Gazipur.
A major development work of road construction under his planning and supervision was undertaken afterwards.
At the time, Delwar played a decisive role in evicting influential local grabbers from the city corporation's land, owing to which these people, who also had major political influence, disliked and opposed him.
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According to sources close to the murder investigation, several contractors wanted to withdraw their money without completing the development work, but Delwar did not let that happen.
The contractors also pressured him to increase the scheduled work bill, which Delwar did not agree to even after being offered a huge bribe.
Subsequently, in September last year, Delwar was made an officer on special duty (OSD), which allegedly happened as a result of lobbying against him by the corrupt and influential contractors.
But about five months later, in February, he was reassigned to the Konabari area in the same post. This time again, he faced pressure from several local contractors, police said.
