Two employees of a Raj Classic bus arrested in connection with the murder of a man whose body was found with his mouth taped shut on the Dhaka Elevated Expressway have given confessional statements before a court, while the bus driver has been placed on four days’ remand for questioning.
The arrested bus supervisor, Saju Laskar, and his assistant, Mahbub Alam Monir, voluntarily gave confessional statements before separate magistrates and were subsequently sent to jail.
The court also granted four days’ remand for bus driver Sohel Rana, who was arrested in connection with the killing of Ismail Hossain.
The case’s investigating officer, Banani Police Station Sub-Inspector Nazrul Islam Talukdar, produced the three accused before the court, seeking to record the confessional statements of Saju and Monir and a seven-day remand for Sohel.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Albiruni Mir recorded Saju’s statement, while Metropolitan Magistrate Md Siddiq Azad recorded Monir’s statement. Both were later sent to jail.
Following a hearing, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ariful Islam granted four days’ remand for Sohel.
Sub-Inspector Moktar Hossain of the prosecution division confirmed the matter.
According to the case statement, Ismail left his home in Jamalpur at around 4:30am on September 4 for his residence in Gazipur. He was carrying Tk500,000 in cash from the sale of family land, along with various food items.
His son, Md Hasan, waited for him at Jirani Bus Stand in Gazipur. When repeated calls to his father’s mobile phone went unanswered, Hasan waited until around 10am before returning home.
At around noon, Banani Police Station informed a neighbour that Ismail’s body had been found. Hasan later identified his father from photographs.
Police recovered Ismail’s body from the Dhaka Elevated Expressway between pillars 179 and 180 on the Kakoli-Kuril-bound carriageway in Banani.
The Tk500,000 in cash and other belongings he had been carrying were missing. His body bore injury marks, while his nose, head and right wrist were wrapped with white packing tape.
Hasan filed a murder case with Banani Police Station on September 4.
