Kolkata: Hours after the Bangladesh government declared on Wednesday that Awami League MP, Md Anwarul Azim Anwar, who went missing from Kolkata on May 13, was “brutally murdered” in the city, the West Bengal Police said that investigation into the case has been taken up by the state CID.
Stating that the police had “reliable inputs” that Anwar “may have been murdered”, Akhilesh Chaturvedi, IG, CID, said that the police were yet to recover the victim’s body.
Police found traces of blood inside a flat of a housing complex in New Town where his last location was traced.
Police also found a car which was suspected to have been used by the MP or used by the suspected murderers to carry the body. Though his body was not traced till the last reports came in, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan along with senior officials of Bangladesh Police reportedly claimed that Azim was murdered.
During a Press conference, Khan stated: “Our police are investigating with the cooperation of the Indian police. Azim had travelled for medical treatment. The area from which he was elected is somewhat troubled by terrorist activities. Based on information shared by the Indian police, we have arrested three individuals. They are currently being interrogated to determine the motive. We can confirm that Azim was murdered in a premeditated manner.” On Wednesday when police reached the housing complex in New Town where Azim’s location was last traced, they found blood stains inside a flat where he had visited earlier. Seeing the blood stain, cops suspect that Azim might have been murdered and his body was carried in several trolley bags in a mutilated manner to dump somewhere else. In CCTV footage, two suspects were reportedly spotted carrying a few luggage trolleys.
Anwar, police sources said, was accompanied by two men and a woman when he checked into the apartment. While CCTV footage showed that the unidentified men and woman left the residential complex in phases between May 15 and May 17, the MP could not be traced.
At least two of the three people accompanying the victim later returned to Bangladesh, police said.
Azim came to India on May 12 and stayed at a house in the Baranagar area for one day. On May 13, he took a cab to New Town and since then the MP remained untraced. The owner of the house of Baranagar lodged a missing diary at the Baranagar Police Station.
Later a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set up by the Barrackpore City Police to trace Azim.