The Rapid Action Battalion and the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Saturday gave differing accounts of the motive behind the murder of a Rangpur businessman, whose dismembered body was found near the Supreme Court gate on November 13.
Following Friday鈥檚 arrests in connection with the murder of Ashraful Haque, the RAB and the DB on Saturday arranged separate press briefings in Dhaka.
The RAB claimed that the motive of the killing was to extort money from the victim by blackmailing him, while DB suspected an extramarital affair behind the killing.
The RAB said that they arrested a suspect, Shamima Akhtar alias Kohinoor, 33, at a location in Cumilla鈥檚 Laksam upazila Friday morning and the DB said that they arrested another suspect, Mohammad Jarezul Islam, 39, at a location under Daudkandi upazila in Cumilla聽Friday night.
The police and the RAB, based on primary information they could extract from the arrested ones, gave details about the murder.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Israt Jennifer Jerin on Saturday granted a five-day remand when the accused Jarezul and Shamima were produced before the court.
In its press conference, Dhaka Metropolitan Police鈥檚 DB chief, Md Shafiqul Islam, said that the victim, Md Ashraful Haque, and his expatriate friend Jarezul developed an extramarital affair with Shamima.
He claimed that the Jarezul and Shamima killed Ashraful due to the extramarital affair.
He said that Jarezul, at a rented house in the capital鈥檚 Demra area, on November 12 hit Ashraful with a hammer and Shamima pressed her scarf inside Ashraful鈥檚 mouth when the victim tried to shout.
Rab-3 commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Fayezul Arefin, in their press briefing, said that their primary findings found that Ashraful was killed as part of a plan to blackmail him and extort Tk 10 lakh.
According to DB official Shafiqul, the accused Jarezul and Shamima spent the night following November 12 there, covering the body with a scarf.
On November 13, the suspects bought plastic drums, a sharp weapon and polythene and then dumped the body near the Supreme Court gate in a CNG-run auto-rickshaw, said Shafiqul, adding that Jarezul confessed that he dismembered the victim鈥檚 body.
The investigators later recovered the hammer and the sharp weapon used in the murder and also a blood-stained scarf, cloths, rope and others as evidence.
Ashraful鈥檚 sister Anjira Begum on Friday filed a case with Shahbagh police station in Dhaka against unidentified assailants in connection with the murder.
