Bangladesh MP's friend paid Rs 5 crore to murder him: West Bengal CID

Kolkata: The initial probe into the “murder” of Bangladesh MP Anwarul Azim Anar revealed that one of his friends had paid around Rs 5 crore to kill the neighbouring country’s parliamentarian, a senior police officer said here on Thursday.

Anar, who went missing in Kolkata since May 13, was found murdered and three people have been arrested, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan had said on Wednesday.

The West Bengal Police had said investigation of the case has been taken up by the state CID.

“It was a well-planned murder. A huge amount of money, around Rs 5 crore was paid by an old friend of the MP to kill him,” the officer told PTI.

The Awami League MP’s friend is a US national and owns a flat in Kolkata, he said.

Akhilesh Chaturvedi, IG, CID, had Wednesday said police had “reliable inputs” that Anar “may have been murdered”, but his body was yet to be recovered.

Asked whether the police found blood stains in the apartment of a luxury condominium in New Town in Kolkata's outskirts, where the MP’s whereabouts were last traced on May 13, Chaturvedi said, “Our forensic team is examining the suspected crime scene. It’s too early to speak about that.”

The search for the missing MP, who reportedly arrived in Kolkata on May 12 to undergo medical treatment, began six days later after Gopal Biswas, a resident of Baranagar in north Kolkata and an acquaintance of the Bangladeshi politician, filed a complaint with the local police on May 18.

Anar had stayed at Biswas’s house upon arrival.

In his complaint, Biswas stated that Anar left his Baranagar residence for a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon of May 13, while stating that he would be back home for dinner.

Biswas claimed that the Bangladesh MP went incommunicado since May 17, which prompted him to file a missing complaint a day later.