Staff Reporter :
Sumon Bepari, the prime accused, on Monday confessed to a magistrate about his involvement in killing trader Shahinuddin in Dhaka’s Pallabi area on May 16.
The accused said he hired 12 goons to kill Shahinuddin as per instruction of former Lakshmipur MP MA Awal.
Metropolitan Magistrate Debdash Chandra Adhikary recorded his confessional statement after Syed Iftekhar Hossain, an inspector of Detective Branch of Police and also the investigation officer of the case, brought him at his chamber. After recording his statement, the magistrate sent him to Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.
Sumon in his statement told the magistrate that since 2004 Awal had a dispute over land with the victim. As the former lawmaker failed to grab the victim’s land, he planned to kill him, he said.
Awal made the blueprint to kill Shahinuddin, a businessman in the capital, at his Kalabagan office where accused Sumon and another person were present, an official of the court confirmed it.
In line with the plan, the former MP asked Sumon to hire 10-12 goons to execute his plan and Sumon hired the criminals accordingly. He had a meeting with them at Mirpur-12 on May 15.
As per the plan, Sumon and others went to the spot in the afternoon of May 16 where Shahinuddin was asked to come to Mirpur Section-12 on the pretext of resolving a land dispute.
When Shahinuddin arrived around 4:00pm with his seven-year-old son, Sumon led the group of 10 to 12 persons who started to hack Shahinuddin indiscriminately with sharp weapons, leaving him dead on the spot, the court official said.
After the murder, Sumon called Awal’s mobile phone and said “Sir, finished”, he said in his confessional statement.
Sumon also told the magistrate that Awal is mainly a land developer. Under his shelter, Sumon and his group used to grab land and resort to criminal activities. They used to get Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000 each month from Awal.
Detectives arrested Sumon from Dhaka’s Jatrabari area on May 19. Later he was placed on a four-day remand in the case.
A day after the murder on May 16, Shahinuddin’s mother filed a case against 20 named and 13 to 14 unnamed accused with Pallabi Police Station. Awal was made primary accused in the case.
Police so far arrested 10 people including Awal in connection with the killing.
