Retired police officer Babul Aktar has returned to his Dhaka home, 20 hours after the home ministry issued the order relieving him of his responsibilities
He had moved to his in-laws’ after his wife was murdered in Chittagong in June this year.
His father-in-law Mosharraf Hossain said he returned home on Wednesday noon.
“He didn’t talk much,” he told bdnews24.com in the evening.”The decision to relieve him was taken from the high-ups (of police). But any decision to move against it legally is yet to be made.
Rumours that the terror-busting SP was being retired had spread when he was taken to the Detective Branch (DB) offices in Dhaka for questioning a month into his wife Mahmuda Aktar Mitu’s murder.
But no official statement was made then neither by the Bangladesh Police nor any government official.
Amid the speculations, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said on Aug 14 that his ministry had received Babul’s resignation letter, but media reports suggested that he was forced to do so.
On Tuesday, the home ministry issued the circular relieving the Superintendent of Police of his duties.
No immediate reaction from Babul was available. His phone was found switched off after he had left the home of his in-laws at Dhaka’s Banasree following the home ministry order. Relatives had also said they were yet to find him. His father-in-law, a former police inspector, said on Wednesday that Babul spent the night at a relative’s home “but we don’t know with whom”. Babul’s father Abdul Wadud said his son was trying to get back his job. “It’s his fate…he is not guilty, but there’s efforts to make him so. We have nothing else to do other than accepting it,” Wadud, who also retired as an inspector from the force, told bdnews24.com.
Lauded for his work against militancy operations in Chittagong, Babul was promoted and moved to Police Headquarters in Dhaka a few days before his wife was murdered.
On the morning of Jun 5, Mitu was walking their 6-year-old son to the school bus when she was stopped by assailants near GEC Intersection in the port city. Babul himself had started the case over the murder.
Asked whether Babul had any connection to his wife’s killing, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque told bdnews24.com on Tuesday: “We have found no concrete evidence that would suggest he was. But our investigation is ongoing.” Investigating officer Senior Assistant Commissioner Md Kamruzzaman, however, has brushed off rumours of Babul’s arrest. “As the officer in charge of the probe, I should know if he was arrested,” said the senior Detective Branch officer of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
