Feni’s Awani League-backed Fulgazi Upazila Chairman Ekramul Haq’s bodyguard has been remanded for five days on charges of involvement in the murder of his boss.
Judicial Magistrate Khairul Amin gave the order yesterday, after police produced the bodyguard Belal Hossain Patowari before him, seeking an eight-day remand.
Feni Model police station Officer-in-Charge Abul Kalam Azad, who is investigating the case, confirmed this.
Earlier on Thursday, police arrested Belal from Khagrachhari. A total of 22 have been arrested in this case, including Belal. According to murder suspects’ confessions, Belal used to update the killers about his boss’s whereabouts.
Belal preliminarily confessed that Ekram had abused him and had thrown him out of the car a few days before he (Ekram) was murdered on May 27.
Enraged at this treatment, Belal had involved himself in Ekram’s murder, which was masterminded by Fulgazi upazila Awami League Joint Secretary Jihad Chowdhury, who had been arrested on Sunday.
Jihad’s enmity with Ekram allegedly began in 2011, when he (Jihad) had been defeated in the upazila’s Anandapur Union Parishad election by a candidate who was backed by Ekram.
In retaliation, Jihad had backed his cousin, the BNP-backed candidate Mahtab Uddin Chowdhury Minar, in last Fulgazi upazila election, instead of supporting Ekram, who was the AL’s candidate.
After winning the election, Ekram suspended Jihad from the local AL committee. However, the suspension was withdrawn after local lawmaker Nizam Uddin Hazari reportedly intervened.
At the time, Jihad reportedly declared in public that he would respond to the suspension by “suspending Ekram from his life.”
