The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested a death row convict who was in hiding for 17 years after killing his wife in Narayanganj.
The elite police unit arrested Asharaf Hossain, 47, from Savar on Thursday, RAB Legal and Media Wing Director Khandaker Al Moin told a media call on Friday.
A Narayanganj court in September 2020 handed Ashraf the death sentence for the murder of his wife, Sanjida, said Moin.
The senior RAB officials said police found the hanging body of Ashraf’s wife at their home in Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj on February 1, 2005.
A case of unnatural death was filed on the suspicion that Sanjida had committed suicide.
Police arrested Ashraf on charges of inciting suicide but his father-in-law got him out on bail after 12 days. He had been in hiding since then.
An autopsy report submitted three months later showed that Sanjida had actually been killed.
To avoid suspicion, Ashraf in 2006 got a job as a journalist at a local newspaper in Savar’s Ashulia. He also got married again in the same year.
“He became a member of Ashulia Press Club in 2009, before being elected its organizing secretary for the 2013-14 term. Recently, he was working at a news outlet called Saptahik Swades,” said Moin, citing information gleaned during primary interrogation.
RAB finally tracked Ashraf down after identifying his social media account using an old photo of him.
“After gathering more information, RAB carried out a raid and arrested Ashraf,” said the senior RAB official.
